Pan (detail)

This is a detail of the enamelled decoration on the handle of a bronze pan, of a type known as a patera, found at Linlithgow in West Lothian. It is an unusual example, with the form and decoration of the pan Roman, but the use of enamel distinctly native.

Technically, the technique used is not true enamel, since the hollows cut in the metal were filled with coloured glass and not fused with the bronzework. The enamel here has been restored.

The use of enamel decoration was popular among native people in Scotland and northern Britain for prestigious objects, and was even adopted for some Roman objects such as this one. The glass used was recycled from imported objects or scrap material.

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