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Description: | An incomplete gilded copper-alloy cloisonné brooch of Early-Medieval date (late 10th to 11th century AD). The body of the brooch is circular (diameter 17.5mm), with a copper-alloy collar which raises up from the front of the brooch, giving a thickness from front to back of 4.9mm. This raised circular field is decorated with cloisonné fields of blue and white enamel. Around the edge are seven semi-circular fields made from C-shaped strips of copper alloy filled with a dark translucent blue enamel. The edges of most of these semi-circular fields butt together, fitting side by side; but in three cases there are thin gaps between the cells, with a maximum width of 0.9mm and minimum width of 0.7mm. All but one of these semi-circular cells is complete.The incomplete cell looks as though an attempt might have been made to try and prise the enamel out of this cell. The external wall of the circular body is damaged here, seeming to have been pushed down and out before the copper-alloy collar broke away. The enamel in this cell has been chipped out leaving only a thin trace remaining.At the centre of the circular cloisonné body is a small circular field (diameter 1.9mm) bordered by copper alloy and filled with white enamel. The space between the outer semi-circular fields and the central small circular field resembles a seven-pointed star. This middle field is filled with an opaque blue that appears slightly darker in colour than the enamel in the semi-circular fields. A small speck of light sky-blue enamel seems to be present in this field, perhaps a speck of white enamel that was accidentally dropped in during manufacture and now lies just below the surface of the dark blue enamel, giving it a light blue appearance. A deeper sunken white speck also appears to be present within one of the semi-circular fields.The backplate has a diameter of 19.1mm, with six equidistant knops (only four remaining) protruding from the edge which increases the diameter across two opposite knops to 24.7mm. The four surviving knops each have a collet (small circular cell), three of which are now empty but the fourth containing a spherical dark blue translucent glass setting. The location of the two missing knops can be clearly seen as worn breaks on the edge of the backplate. On the reverse, two sub-rectangular scars are visible which represent the position of the, now missing, catch-plate and pin fixing. These scars have a maximum measurement of 8.1mm x 4.0mm each and are set 1.6mm in from the edge of the back-plate parallel to the edge. Patches of gilding remain on the reverse of the backplate, and small traces can also be seen on the front, suggesting that originally all external parts of the copper alloy were covered in gilding.This incomplete brooch weighs 4.48g. See Buckton 1986 for a discussion of cloisonné enamel brooches; also see parallels on the PAS database, for example NLM-857195, NARC-C34DE6, HAMP-476AD1 and BERK-5B0275.
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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