LONDON.- An exquisite solid gold bracelet made over 3000 years ago at the dawn of the European Iron Age was among the highlights of the Antiquities sale on Thursday 2 May, at Christie’s South Kensington.
The heavy gold bracelet ... features superb works of art that embrace the cultures of Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Near East.
The design of the bracelet, made with over half a kilo of high-purity gold, clearly demonstrates the technological advancements of the Iron Age. The new use of iron around 1000 B.C. brought two huge benefits to the goldsmith. Furnaces capable of achieving the high temperatures necessary for iron production provided craftsmen with the technology to melt larger masses of gold than before, while tools made out of the iron itself allowed craftsmen to become increasingly bold and ambitious with their designs.
The stunning piece of jewellery, featuring an intricate geometric pattern, was originally discovered in Portugal, part of the Iberian Peninsula where other museum-quality pieces were also uncovered during the mid-20th Century.