MEDIEVAL BROOCH

1200

Cast copper alloy annular or ring brooch, in the form of a miniature coronet, with six collared bosses set with three blue glass pellets, one orange glass pellet, and two of the settings are now empty revealing a white powdery substance which could be white paste, but was probably used to build up the base of the setting, within the copper alloy cylinder, to take another glass pellet above it. The brooch is flat based, in section, and the upper surface, between the protruding bosses, which stand 3.7 mm proud of the frame, has also been flattened before being decorated. There are two recessed lines running between each setting and within each of these lines are about a dozen tiny punched circles. The punched circles also encircle the hole that the pin loop is suspended from, rather than being looped over the frame itself as in the comparanda below. The pin head is penannular and the pin is semi-circular in section and 14 mm long and 1.6 mm wide and it is broken so that it does not quite reach the other side of the brooch. 13th-14th century. Similar examples include: EAA Norwich Households, p. 14, No.58; Read’s Metal Artefacts of Antiquity, p.110, No.805; Bailey’s Detector Finds, p. 48, No.10.