A large ancient Celtic brooch, known as a fibula, with a number of decorative devices; an imposing, attractive example of the fibula created on the Iberian Peninsula.
This brooch is from a Celtiberian collection of artifacts. It is made of bronze. It measures approximately 64.6 mm in diameter, and 43 mm tall.
This brooch is an interesting mix of styles, indicative of the Iberian peninsula's position between two cultures. If you search more northerly Celtic brooches (of the time), you'll find examples of round brooches. If you search for Etruscan brooches (Pre-Roman Italy) you'll find brooches with bows that look like leaches. The Celtiberians married these two styles into a leach-like brooch, with a round base; the merged style is unique to the region and helps to identify where the fibula was created.
Decoration -
There are a number of design elements:
The round base has triangles, made of parallel lines, on both sides.
On the side of the brooch where the pin would land, there are four patterns of circles radiating outward; two on the base, and two on the bow.
Just above the radiating circles, are horizonal lines, with a touch of gold still visible.
Above the horizontal lines, on the bow, are three bulbous protrusions.
The horizontal lines, and protrusions, are on both sides of the bow, but in better condition on the side the pin lands on.
There seems to be some paint still extant on the brooch. From my untrained eye, it looks like a red base was applied, with a black overcoat.
Provenance -
We bought a collection of artifacts at auction in Switzerland (La Galerie Numismatique, September 28th, 2024); we are researching each object and offering them for sale individually. You can see the collection in the pictures we posted.
In the course of our investigation, we found that the artifacts had several names of places in the Celtiberian region written on them, for example "Salienca". Also, the brooch design was unique to the Celtiberians (Google search Celtiberian Fibula to see similar examples). We've come to the conclusion that the collection is specific to the Celtiberian era/region.
Wikipedia tells us the Celtiberians "were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples inhabiting an area in the central-northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries of the BC. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors (e.g. Strabo)."
Condition -
The pin is missing. The spring is broken and cracked. On the bow, on the side of the spring, there is a small hole just above the protrusions. Someone wrote on the round base, what appears to be "Elola". On the bottom, there are still traces of glue from where it was glued in to the collection.