Enamelled Handpin

Unknown artist

This type of dress pin is known as a handpin, its head resembles the palm of the hand with fingers bent forward. Like the zoomorphic penannular brooches, this form of small dress pin originated in late Roman Britain and was later developed by Irish craftsmen. The earliest handpins are silver and are of relatively modest size. Examples in copper alloy, with elaborately decorated heads and exceptionally long pins, are regarded as being typologically late in the series and were made in Ireland into the sixth century. Most developed handpins have five 'fingers' rather than three as here. In this example the head is a semicircular plate with a circular perforation. It is capped by three projecting fingers and is fixed to a right-angled projection at the top of the shank. The head is decorated with a pattern of reserved metal against a background of red enamel. The design consists of a pari of inward-curving 'dodo' heads springing from a central