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The Double-ended Fire-dog
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
Extract
In the first published description of the Capel Garmon fire-dog (PLATE, p. 64), J. Evans quotes a view concerning its use: ‘I would suggest that this instrument is intended to hold the spits for roasting fowls, game or other small animals. … The loops on the side are evidently intended for that purpose, and it is probable that the horns of the two heads are intended for supporting a larger one’.
On the other hand, in the latest description of the same fire-dog, it is suggested that this fire-dog formed one of a pair: ‘The evidence of the Welwyn and other finds suggests that two fire-dogs was the normal equipment of the Celtic (central) hearth, whether secular or sacred, and it needs little imagination to appreciate the effect of a pair of “Capel Garmon” fire-dogs with flaming logs between’.
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- Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1942
References
1 Arch. Camb., 1856, p. 95.
2 Sir Cyril Fox, Antiquaries Journal, 1939, pp. 446-8.
3 Such a belief has been widely held by later writers. For instance, L. A. Shuffrey (The English Fireplace, 1912, p. 10) states that the Capel Garmon fire-dog was ‘obviously for use in a central hearth’and that’ the loops up the sides . . . were probably for the purpose of resting the spit-irons in for roasting purposes ‘. J. Seymour Lindsay (Iron and Brass Implements of the English House, 1927, p. 3) contrasts the double-ended dog with the single-ended ‘constructed for use with the wall down-hearth . . . [and] used in pairs’. Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards (The Dictionary of English Furniture, 11, 1924) draw attention to the single double-ended dog (of Capel Garmon type) at Pens- hurst. ‘This pair of andirons’ as the fire-dog is described, ‘is coupled by a billet bar supported in the centre, and against this bar the logs are stacked’. Joseph Déchelette (Manuel d’archéologie, 11, 1914, p. 1407) writes : ‘les boucles formées par les ondulations pouvaient recevoir les extrémités des broches de cuisine’. In none of these descriptions is it suggested that double-ended dogs were used in pairs. From the description in one of them, it might be inferred that the fire-dog was even so placed that the billet bar fell across the fire itself, but this would have been impracticable where there was no central support for the billet bar.
4 Archaeologia, LXIII, 5.
5 ibid. pp. 6-9.
6 ibid. p. 6.
7 Déchelette (op. cit. p. 1411) and others have drawn attention to two iron ‘tables’ from the Département de la Marne and Arras which may have been evolved from two double-ended fire-dogs placed parallel and joined to form a rectangular frame. A similar frame, but without zoomorphic characteristics was discovered at Welwyn. It has been suggested—by Déchelette and R. A. Smith—that these are Keltic imitations of the sacrificial table used in classical antiquity. They may indeed have been a form of brazier (cf. the example in the Bayeux tapestry). But a discussion of their use is outside the scope of this paper. If they were evolved from a pair of fire-dogs it is obvious from the proportions of their length and breadth that they were used on the front and back of the fire, not on its flanks. In such cases, there would be no fireback-stone (see below). But the possibility is extremely problematical and cannot be argued without more evidence.
8 T. P. Ellis, Welsh Tribal Law and Custom (1926), 11, p. 164 ; see also the present writer’s The Welsh House (1940), chapter VI.
9 Å. Campbell, ‘Notes on the Irish House’, Folkliv, 1937, p. 230.
10 Country Life, 1909, p. 447.
11 A. Owen, Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, 1, 522.
12 ibid. 11, p. 793.
13 For transcripts of the two poems I am much indebted to my friend Mr Evan D. Jones, Keeper of the Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales. The poems appear in Peniarth MS. 77 and Mostyn MS. 111 respectively, in that Library.
14 J. Déchelette, ‘Les origines de la drachme’ in Revue Numismatique, 1911, p. 48.