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Description: | An incomplete cast copper alloy lozenge-shaped brooch with remains of gilding and iron corrosion on the back, dating to the late 8th/ early 9th century AD (length: 90.7mm; width: 66mm; thickness of plate: 1.6mm; weight: 30.23g). At the top of this flat plate brooch, there is a large slightly extending area of iron corrosion, where the iron spring was situated.
The slightly uneven-sided lozenge plate has a plain border around the outside, with an outer ridge separating the border from the finely detailed chip carved design. Separating the decoration into quarters, a flat cross (that would have originally have had five bosses) has four outer rounded terminals, with a rounded central platform in the centre. The three rounded platforms that run down the length of the artefact still have the remains of iron rivets intact, which still hold the remains of the strip at the back. The other two platforms to the left and right have small holes in the centre, where there may have also originally been rivets. Additionally, there may have been another rivet and the very bottom angle of the artefact. Each of the four chip carved segments are slightly different with a geometric Greek key-type design. Alternating segments seem to be closer matched, with the top right and bottom left patterning possible segmented into four further segments amongst the design, while the top left and bottom right seem to be divided into three.
At the back of the brooch, there is an iron strip on the back running down the length of the artefact as well as large amounts of iron staining, from the original pin attachment, of a one-piece type very typical of the eight and ninth centuries (now missing). Leslie Webster at the British Museum states that ??the mechanism consisted of a flat strip modified into a catch at one end, and shaped into a pin with a coiled spring at the other, and the strip was riveted to the back of the brooch, usually with the rivet heads concealed, as here, by decorative bosses??. The iron rivets in the centre of the artefact and the bottom are visible, as are the empty probable rivet holes to the left and right. The artefact is in a poor and corroded condition with small areas of bronze disease on the decorated front of the artefact, as well as on the back. The iron corrosion is extensive on the back, and there are several small breaks along the edges of the brooch. The main body of the brooch has a dark green patina.
Leslie Webster and Barry Ager at the British Museum have confirmed that a similar unprovenanced example (although smaller) is displayed in within the Museum in the Early Medieval gallery (registration number 1999, 1-2, 1), which also has a version of the key pattern. Another example from Cambridgeshire is illustrated in ??Treasure Hunting?? magazine??s August 2000 edition, page 6, which agrees with Leslie Webster??s opinion that these are not particularly common finds. The writer (Rod Blunt) in the magazine dates the artefact to the 7th-8th century and states that the brooch is ??well preserved with almost all of the gilding intact, but unfortunately the integral pin has been broken at the point where it originally extended from the spring coil. The design is of a Greek key pattern and the brooch has been finished to a high standard??.
Barry Ager at the British Museum also details similar but smaller and more simply decorated lozenge-shaped brooches; examples are known from Sedgeford, Norfolk, and Hemingstone, Suffolk (H. Geake, 2002, ??Medieval Britain and Ireland??, ??Medieval Archaeology??, vol 46, at pp. 140-1, fig 5a). A further unprovenanced example of this smaller type is illustrated in N. Mills, 2001, ??Saxon & Viking Artefacts??, Witham, p. 54, no AS114. An ornate, late Merovingian example with five bosses and pearl and stone settings comes from Floriffoux, Belgium {H.E.F. Vierck, 1978, ??La >?? Chelles et l??influence Byzantine sur l??art de cour m??rovingian au VIIe si??cle??, pp. 521-572 in ??Centenaire de l??Abb?? Cochet 1975. Actes du Colloque International d?? Arch??ologie, Rouen 3-4-5 Juillet 1975??, Rouen, fasc. 3, fig 9, 1).
Barry Ager has also commented that the iron strip and pin attachment at the back of the brooch is comparable to those on 8th and 9th century disc brooches, for example, from Ixworth, Suffolk, and Beeston Tor, Staffordshire (D. M. Wilson, 1964, ??Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700-1100 in the British Museum:, London, cat. Nos 2 and 25). These brooches have five bosses on the front, like this example from North Staffordshire.
A big thank you to Leslie Webster and Barry Ager at the British Museum who gave me a lot of help in writing this record. | Subjects: | lozenge shaped | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Johnson, Caroline - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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