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Description: | A well-preserved and relatively large example of an annular brooch type known as a 'disc-on-pin' brooch. The frame is circular, 30 mm in diameter, and is made of gilded copper alloy. In cross-section it is oval, with some variations in both width and thickness (perhaps caused by wear) but a maximum of 5 mm wide and 4 mm thick. The frame has a matt brown patina with small patches of a dark green surface with gilding, and no decoration survives. There is a narrow pin constriction which runs all of the way around the frame, on which the pin swivels. When the brooch is held with the pin constriction at 12 o'clock, at 9 o'clock on the reverse is a neatly cut slot 2.5 mm wide which looks very like a pin rest. Opposite this, at 3 o'clock and also only on the reverse, is another groove which is more corroded but which appears to be shallower and much more irregular; perhaps worn rather than deliberately cut. The pin is 31 mm long, is made from copper alloy and also has traces of gilding. Immediately below the loop it flares out into a large lozengiform plate (the 'disc') which is decorated with four separate copper-alloy rivets with large (4 mm diameter) knob heads. These rivets serve no useful purpose and are purely decorative. There is also an engraved border, made up of individual punchmarks, around the edge of the lozenge. The lozenge is 17 mm wide and 16 mm long, and so fills nearly all of the space within the frame. The shaft of the pin emerges again from the lower corner, and is angled up to meet the frame. There is no hint of any stress to the metal, so if this angle is due to damage rather than to deliberate manufacture it must have happened quite early on the in the brooch's life when the metal was still flexible. These brooches are enigmatic, as expanding the pin out to form a large plate would prevent the pin passing through fabric. It is possible that the decorated pin was non-functional; a functional pin at right angles to it could have been used to fasten the brooch, and then the decorative pin swivelled over. This brooch might provide evidence for this suggestion, in the form of the additional groove(s); but a pin rest only, not a proper pin constriction, seems to have been provided, and the pin rest is on the reverse of the brooch. So this example does not on its own explain how these brooches worked, but it does provide useful data towards this. | Subjects: | disc on pin | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Geake, Helen - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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