Being encouraged to stay close to home for over a year during the pandemic has been difficult in so many ways but has created far more appreciation of valuable local assets. For me the benefit of being able to view some of the ancient hills and woodlands of Bagendon and North Cerney near Cirencester from the back of a plucky little Icelandic horse during the lockdown gave me a renewed love of the place that I made my home more than 30 years ago.
During a visit to the new ‘Stone Age to Corinium’ exhibition at the Corinium Museum in November 2020 I fell in love with a late Iron Age gold coin depicting a three tailed horse pulling a chariot with the word BODVOC on the reverse. It was a thing of simple beauty with amazing detail. I cannot imagine the thrill of digging up such a coin.The original piece would have been struck with dies using ancient tools demonstrating the skill of the craftsmen and women at that time and it has been wonderful to think that the treasures on display have been found in the locality which gives one an amazing connection to them.Horse trading in Bagendon and the surrounding area was an important aspect of life in Iron Age times with little horses similar to some of the native breeds of small horses that still survive today being bought with such coins.To think of the hands of Iron Age men and women that have held such a coin…from the manufacture of it to the exchange between traders is a wonderful thing to think about…
Although the beautiful coin held some similarities to many of our ancient looking signature style in some of our collections, particularly our Amulet pendants, which use traditional goldsmithing skills only , the fine detail of the three tailed horse needed to be perfected with the precision of CAD and 3D printing and then combined with hands on soldering and texturing.Collaborating with CAD expert Jack Row we were able to recreate a reconstruction of the coin from sketches and photographs ,as we were unable to have the actual piece in our hands and for much of last year were unable to go into the museum to see it in the flesh!
When the first prototypes were produced we were amazed at the accuracy of the size and detail.
The Bodvoc Pendant will be on sale exclusively at the Corinium Museum shop.Available in Silver and Gold-plated Silver ,each pendant comes presented in a Louise Parry box.
All work on this pendant design and all profits go towards funding the Corinium Museum, now and into the future….
The Corinium Museum is a precious asset for the local as well as the wider community and we feel immensely proud that we can use the skills that we have at our fingertips to support it in our own small way….
