Chi Rho Belt Buckle

**RonnieMac13** · 25th October 09, 09:24 AM

Beautiful, I was saving my pennies for something right? Excuse me inflation, dollars! My favorite is the second one (Chi Rho AO, brass on copper).

**MacDonnell1973** · 25th October 09, 09:37 AM

Amazing craftmanship. Beautiful and beatific.

**Panache** · 25th October 09, 06:53 PM

Amazing work!

Cheers

Jamie :ootd:

**fluter** · 25th October 09, 07:14 PM

My problem is how to pick just one, although I'm wild about the fleur de lis. Uh, and most of the crosses, and the triskel... and now the Chi Rho.

O yes, and paying for it is my problem, too. "Maybe next year." Gorgeous work, sir.

**nh_maclean** · 25th October 09, 09:41 PM

beautiful! I think there is something awesome about the creative process - same idea but very unique outcomes!

**MacRobert's Reply** · 28th October 09, 06:10 AM

Great buckles Tyger. The brass and copper versions look particularly attractive. It is so good to see such craftsmanship in a world obsessed by mass production.

A wee bit more on the relationship between the chi-rho and the Celtic cross:

Following the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in 312, Christians widely (and now openly) used the chi (X) rho(P) symbol. These appear in 4th Century Romanised Britain, sometimes encircled by a triumphal wreath. Later in the 4th Century the chi(X) has been turned 45 degrees into a cross(+), particularly in Gaul, Iberia, the Rhineland and South-West Scotland. By the end of the 4th Century, the rho(P) appears looped as a shepherd's crook or bishop's crozier, especially on the Atlantic coasts of Britain and Ireland. By then the wreath has become a simple circle.

Here are a couple of late 4th Century examples from Whithorn in Galloway which appears to have been the birthplace of Celtic ring crosses that spread throughout Western Britain and Ireland.

I have also seen such crosses (on the Isle of Lundy in the Bristol Channel) with the crooked rho(P) reversed with the loop to the left rather than the right, suggesting that the wreathed chi-rho has become an encircled cross and crozier. By the 6th century the loop has disappeared - the precursor to the Celtic cross had arrived.

How about a smaller, two inch diamiter version, as a kilt pin?

**tyger** · 28th October 09, 08:04 AM

Very do-able.

**Kilted Carver** · 28th October 09, 02:33 PM

I was lucky enough to see a kilt pin he did when we where at Stone Mountain, it was very cool, it went with his personal buckle that also was a fine work of art.