Anglo-Saxon Bronze Regardant Beast Brooch

The eight arms arranged with alternating trefoil and tapering terminals, the trilobate arms formed as animal masks, the tapering arms as dragon-heads, all with stylised detailing in relief; punched circlets to the field; some remains of mounting lug to reverse centre. 68 grams, 54 mm



Found Norfolk, UK. From an East Anglian private collection.

Of Hines's Group I with border of facing masks to the headplate, two discs within incised frames and raised mask between; shallow bow with three ribs, the median one with a central boss and extending to a small beast-head between the curled horse-head lappets; lozenge-shaped footplate with ropework border and facing bearded mask, lateral lobes and lobe finial with an inverted facing mask; applied silver-sheet detailing to the edges of the footplate; remains of pin-lugs and catch to the reverse. 114 grams, 14.5 cm



Found Scampton, Lincolnshire, UK. From the private collection of Alan Harrison, circa 2000. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11900-204376.

An exact parallel for the Scampton brooch is not known, as is typical for these hand-items made by lost-wax casting processes in one-piece moulds. The brooch falls within Hines's Group I and shares many features with an example from Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire (Hines, 1997, no.13) although the latter has a Style I panel on the headplate whereas the Scampton example features two raised discs within incised squares, a feature also found on finds from Duston (and Linton Heath (Hines, 1997, pl.11)). This brooch was recovered by a metal-detectorist in several pieces over a period of some years, and re-assembled. It was published by Leahy in his authoritative work on the Kingdom of Lindsey.

Of Hines's Group X with rectangular headplate featuring low-relief bird-heads and a raised piriform mask to each upper corner; shallow bow with raised ribs and a stud to the centre; triangular footplate with coiled horse-head lappets forming the shoulders, lateral lobes (one detached) with sheet-silver surface, inverted facing mask to the finial; remains of ferrous pin and catch to the reverse. 100 grams, 14.5 cm



Found near March, Cambridgeshire, UK, circa 2015.

A close match to the features of the March brooch is not recorded in Hines's corpus, but the very distinctive isosceles triangle footplate with sharp shoulders appears on the example from Little Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire (Hines's pl.33(b). The facing masks in the upper corners of the headplate also appear on an example from Driffield (Hines, 1997, pl.82(a).