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Description: | Anglo-Saxon cast copper alloy button brooch. Button brooches are circular in shape and resemble miniature saucer brooches, although the relationship between these two brooch classes is not clear. This brooch is an example of Avent and Evison Class ii. The brooch is 17mm in diameter, all other measurements are unknown. The brooch is slightly worn, with no gilding on the surface. Button brooches usually have a gilt surface; however there is no trace of gilt on this example.
It is most likely that the gilt was lost due to corrosion of the copper alloy base metal; however the brooch appears to be in good condition other than the missing gilt ? the brooch has been identified from a black and white photograph, which does not accurately reveal the level of corrosion on the brooch. The wide and relatively shallow rim is intact.
The upper surface is decorated with a face-mask motif, which is comprised of 5 different elements. The undecorated helmet is rounded with a curved base. Below, the downwardly curving eyebrow, narrow nose and wide cheek elements have been combined to form a mask around the triangular shaped eyes. There are no eye-rings on this face-mask; it is likely that they were combined with the cheeks to form the lower half of the mask. The mouth appears to be lozenge shaped, however it is unclear whether it is open. The face is bordered with a raised concentric ring immediately before the upturned rim. The pin is missing from the reverse of the brooch, and there is no iron corrosion to suggest that an iron pin was attached. The pin may have been lost before the brooch was deposited, which could account for the lack of iron corrosion. However, some button brooches had copper alloy pins fitted, which could have been the case with this example.
The pin ran at an angle of 293 degrees to 113 degrees across the face, although it is unclear which angle represents the pin lug and which was the catchplate as they are very worn. These angles correspond to the face of the brooch as opposed to the reverse so they are comparable with the measurements from Avent and Evison?s research. | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ | Publisher: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Rights holder: | The Portable Antiquities Scheme | Subjects: | archaeology | Temporal: | 475
550 | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Richard Hobbs | Identifier: | http://www.finds.org.uk/database/artefac... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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