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Description: | A nearly complete copper alloy enamelled Roman symmetrical plate brooch. The brooch is lozenge shaped with four circular lugs on the edge, one at each corner. Each lug has two concentric grooves around its centre. The central lozenge section has one large central cell of the same shape, filled with 16 small blocks of millefiori. Such blocks were formed by cutting slices from a composite glass rod, formed by arranging coloured rods of glass in a pattern, heating them enough to fuse and then stretching them into long thin, composite rods. The pattern seen on this brooch comprises alternating lozenge-shaped blocks of two patterns: one is a blue flower-like design, with a red centre on a white background, the other containing tiny squares of white, red and blue arranged in a chequerboard within a red outer border. The first is a common millefiori design, and the second a variant of another common pattern seen on such brooches (see Bayley and Butcher 2004, p.47). Part of the decoration has fallen away at one side and the rest shows signs of corrosion, though the colours remain clear and well-defined. Bayley and Butcher (2004, 178), suggest that millefiori was probably being used to decorate brooches in the early 3rd century. Brooches using such a technique are likely to be of continental manufacture, as there is little evidence to suggest that is was used as a decorative technique by British manufacturers until the post-Roman period (ibid.). The reverse of the brooch is undecorated. At one end is a pin hinged between two lugs and at the other a small catchplate. The pin is missing, as is the curved upper part of the catchplate. However, the brooch survives in otherwise fairly good condition, with a shiny green patina to the metal.Length: 28.72mm, Width: 24.48mm, Thickness: 8.71mm Weight: 3.50g
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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