EARLY MEDIEVAL BROOCH

500

Surface metal analysis conducted at the British Museum indicated an approximate silver content for the brooch of 97%; it weighs 1.35grams.The fragment consists of the rectangular head-plate and part of the bow of an Early Medieval miniature bow brooch, of which the original form is uncertain in view of the absence of the foot-plate; length: 13 mm surviving; width: 8 mm. The head-plate has a roughly beaded edge round a collet enclosing a rectangular garnet mounted on a grid-patterned foil; on the back is a broken lug for hinging a pin.The miniature form and shape of the head-plate may be compared with a pair of small brooches dating to the 6th century, with rectangular heads and triangular feet from Mucking, Essex, grave 102 (British Museum, registration nos. 1970,4-6,22-23). The type has more distant parallels with a plain brooch of similar form from Issendorf, Germany, inhumation grave no. 3553, and another with a more elongated foot which has lost its decorative mounts, said uncertainly to be from Herpes, Charente, France (H.-J. Hässler, 2002, Das sächsische Gräberfeld von Issendorf, Ldkr. Stade, Niedersachsen, Oldenburg, p. 241, fig. 4, 2; British Museum reg. no. 1905,5-20,192). But in the absence of the foot it is also possible that the Eastry brooch represents an unusual version of Anglo-Saxon miniature square-headed brooch, a type that was often inlaid with rectangular garnets (N. Åberg, 1926, The Anglo-Saxons in England, Uppsala, figs. 136 and 142-4). A fragmentary silver example, though without garnet, from Breamore, Hampshire, has been reported as Treasure (DCMS Treasure Annual Report 2001, pp.26-7, no. 33).