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Recognising Iron Age and Celtic metalwork

La Tène curves, horse gear, and enamelled bronze.

Iron Age 'Celtic' art favours flowing asymmetric curves — trumpet voids, triskeles, stylised birds — quite unlike Roman symmetry. Common metal finds include horse gear (terrets/rein rings, bridle bits, strap unions), brooches of La Tène construction, and red glass 'enamel' inlays glowing in cast bronze cells.

Coins aside, look for the champlevé red inlay, the confident compass-drawn curve, and cast loops with wear from straps. Iron survives less kindly — currency bars, sword blades in scabbards, and tools come rusted but recognisable in profile.

This material can be spectacular and is often regionally significant; record findspots precisely and consider formal reporting even where not required. Describe motifs concretely (triskele, trumpet scroll), note inlay colours, and weigh cast pieces — completeness of a horse-gear set matters to interpretation.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on cultures

Recognising Bronze Age metalwork — Flat axes to socketed axes, palstaves, and founder's hoards.

Recognising Roman military fittings — Belt plates, armour hinges, and the hardware of the legions.

Recognising Anglo-Saxon metalwork — Interlace, garnet cloisonné, and the brooch traditions of early England.

Recognising Viking and Norse finds — Ring-money, trefoil brooches, and the gripping beasts of the north.

Recognising Egyptian antiquities — Faience amulets, bronzes, and the hardest provenance questions in the hobby.

Recognising Near Eastern antiquities — Cylinder seals, Luristan bronzes, and clay figures of great age.

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