EARLY MEDIEVAL BROOCH

800

Description: Fragment of Middle or Late Anglo-Saxon silver brooch with none of the original outer edge surviving. The plate is in the form of a cross with a separate central decorative silver dome-headed rivet. Each arm of the cross is decorated with a panel of similar but different geometric, perhaps interlaced, decoration reserved on a field of niello, much of which is missing. The quality of the engraving is not high. Each panel is edged with a reserved border, and the central rivet is also surrounded by a reserved border. The arms of the cross flare towards the breaks, and the plate is broken across rounded openwork apertures in the internal angles of the cross.The breaks are fairly crisp and unworn, but patinated a similar colour to the surface of the brooch and are probably not recent.Dimensions: Maximum surviving measurements 27 x 16mm. Length of rivet 3mm. Plate less than 1mm thick. Weight 1.7g.Discussion: The surviving elements appear very similar to NMS-972E58, brooch (c) (HER57139), with the pelta-shaped terminals of the cross meeting to form pelta-shaped apertures in the internal angles. Other examples of similar silver brooches on the PAS database include BM-138695 and LIN-9B7487; and in gilded copper alloy, LIN-01DE95. The group is sometimes known as Elmsett-type brooches, from an example found at Elmsett in Suffolk (West 1998, 25, fig. 24.6).Date: The use of the Trewhiddle style on many of these brooches dates them broadly to the 9th century.