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Description: | TREASURE CASE : 2002 T170The brooch, which is broken in two unequal halves, is gilded on the front and tinned on the back to give the appearance of a silver base; diameter: 50 mm. In the centre is a large, empty, circular cell, which would originally have held a boss of white material (possibly shell or cuttlefish) with a central garnet. This is encircled by a band containing four smaller, empty circular cells (for coloured glass or garnet settings) flanked on either side by simple, sharply cast, thumb-knot motifs (Avent's class 6 ornament type 12.1; see R Avent, Anglo-Saxon Disc and Composite Brooches (BAR 11), Oxford 1975), each group alternating with four T-shaped collets in a cruciform arrangement, their stems pointing towards the centre of the brooch and three of the four still containing a flat garnet setting. The fourth collet retains a lattice-patterned gold backing foil for the garnet. The knot motifs replace the typical animal eyes of earlier classes of keystone garnet brooches. A discontinuous ridge joins the circular collets on their sides adjoining the inner rim, which is formed by a second, continuous ridge. The rim proper consists of a flat, circular rib originally punched all round with annulets (though now worn smooth on one side) and surrounded by an outer 'light-and-shade' ring, in which plain sections alternate with seven remaining, transversely ribbed bands of varying length (combining Avent's rim form types 2 and 14). Part of the rim on the larger half is broken away near the break, while the two garnets on this half are cracked and have fragments missing. The gilding has worn off much of the border rib and rim and a fragment of metal is missing from the centre of the brooch.On the back, only the stub of a copper-alloy pin remains, which is split at the end to pass either side of the hinge-lug. It is hinged to the lug with a single rivet. Opposite is the vertical stub of the catch-plate, which has two copper alloy rivets of an antique repair passing through it.Discussion: The brooch is Anglo-Saxon, and can be classified as an example of Avent's Kentish 'keystone garnet' disc brooches of class 6.1 (R Avent, Anglo-Saxon Garnet Inlaid Disc and Composite Brooches (BAR 11), Oxford 1975, pt. ii, pp. 29-32, nos. 114-124, pls. 34-39). Before the Riccall find there were eleven brooches of this class known, all from sites in Kent: at Faversham, Dover, Gilton, Kingston and Maidstone. The Riccall find is most similar in its design to one of the four brooches from Faversham (Avent, op. cit., no. 116, pl. 35), although it lacks the rectangular garnet settings of the inner band of the rim and it is notable that it differs from the class as a whole in one important respect: it is of gilded copper alloy, whereas all the other examples are of gilded silver. The method of hingeing the pin is also different: on all the other brooches (except one where the pin is hinged between two lugs) the pin has a sprung hinge and is usually of iron.The brooch is so far the only representative of class 6.1 found outside Kent. As noted above, it is unusual in the metal and method of hingeing of the pin. Also, it is remarkable that it is made of gilded and tinned copper alloy, whereas the eleven other examples of the class are all made of gilded silver. It was, therefore, possibly either an 'export' from Kent (whether by gift exchange or exogamy), or made by a Kentish jeweller for a Northumbrian patron, or even a local copy of a Kentish type, although this seems less likely.Class 6 brooches are broadly dated to the end of the 6th century and the first two decades of the 7th and the cruciform arrangement of the garnets suggests the possibility of Christian influence on the design (Avent, op. cit., pp. 62, 64). The new religion was introduced to Northumbria possibly as early as 619 (H Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, London 1972, p. 66), so, if made for a convert, the Riccall brooch seems more likely to date to the earlier part of the 7th century than to the end of the 6th. Dimensions and metal content: Diameter: 50 mm. Surface metal analysis conducted at the British Museum indicated that the brooch is made of copper alloy, with the front gilded and the back tinned. The three remaining inlays of its settings were identified as garnet.Note: Although the brooch is more than three hundred years old, it does not qualify as Treasure, as the precious metal content, present in the gilding only, does not exceed 10 per cent.B AGERSee Treasure Annual Report 2002 (2003), p.45, no.30.This Treasure Case was reported prior to 2007 at which time PAS database records for items of potential Treasure became mandatory. As such some information may be missing from the record and no image of the object could be located.The details of this find are now being added as part of a retrospective documentation project by the FLO in order to ensure maximum retention and accessibility of knowledge.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/ | Go to resource |
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