EARLY MEDIEVAL BROOCH

450

An incomplete cast copper alloy and gilded miniature bow brooch of Early-Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) date (c. AD 450 – c. AD 550). Length: 25.1mm; width: 11.0mm and 5.3mm thick. Weight: 1.76g.The edges of the brooch, part of the catch-plate and part of the foot-plate are missing due to abrasion and old breaks. The pin is also missing.The brooch comprises a head-plate, a bow and a foot-plate. The head-plate is semi-circular in plan and has a width of 11.0mm. It has chip-carved decoration in anthropomorphic form and resembles a stylised human mask facing forward. A nose consists of two vertical groves with a rounded pellet at either side for the eyes. Each cheek is in the form of three curving ridges with grooves. The mouth is formed by a downward curving (frowning) ridge with a median crest. At either side of this crest there are small regularly spaced decorative circular punch marks.The bow is strongly arched in side profile and has a maximum length of 10.1mm with a maximum width of 5.0mm. It is convex at the front and flat at the rear. In plan, the bow narrows from the head-plate towards the centre and then expands towards the foot-plate. The foot-plate is sub-triangular in plan and has a maximum width at the top of 8.4mm. It tapers in width from the bow towards the bottom where there is an old oblique break. However, only a small portion of the plate is missing. The front of the foot-plate has chip-carved decorated and is formed by a central vertical groove flanked on either side by similar grooves and ridges which are orientated at a slightly upwards angle. Immediately below the bow there is an upward curving ridge with a median crest similar to that representing the mouth on the head-plate. It is similarly decorated with circular punch marks.At the rear of the head-plate there is a single lug for the spring mechanism and pin. An iron spring remains intact. It is heavily corroded but appears to be a spring of four coils and probably had an internal chord. The curled-over part of the catch-plate that secured the pin is missing and the surviving part is D-shaped in side profile. It has a length of 5.0mm.The front of the brooch is partially corroded, although a considerable amount of gilding is present. The rear face is also corroded. Both faces have copper alloy corrosion products. Where the base metal is exposed, particularly on the front of the bow, the metal is a reddish colour. The iron spring is severely corroded and in a fragile condition.Mr Barry Ager of the British Museum has commented:'The only English parallel I can suggest is a rather fragmentary brooch missing its foot-plate (which may have been of a completely different shape) and with the remains of an ovoid head-plate from Shelfanger, Norfolk, which has one of three trefoil knobs surviving (K. Penn & A. Rogerson, 1989, "An Anglo-Saxon brooch fragment from Shelfanger, near Diss", Norfolk Archaeology, 40.3, p. 324, fig. 1). The face on Shelfanger is comparable with button brooches of the mid 5th-mid 6th century, but the one from [Shalfleet] is hard to parallel closely, although I would suggest a similar date'.