Anglo-Saxon Chip-Carved Gilt-Bronze Brooch Fragment

Including seven accompanied by Portable Antiquities Scheme records: an incomplete small-long brooch with ring-and-dot ornament; an incomplete small square-headed brooch with headplate featuring zoomorphic mouldings in Salin's Style 1; spindle whorl decorated with vertical striations; an incomplete small Kentish square-headed brooch; fragment of a great square-headed brooch; hooked tag with perforated oval head, Read Class A Type 2; disc brooch decorated with concentric circles and punched dots; together with other miscellaneous artefacts. 240 grams total, 19-45 mm



Found Berkshire, UK. Accompanied by a copies of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) report nos.BERK-056093, BERK-725B84, BERK-25F9D1, BERK-04DF75, BERK-051CDB, BERK-0605B4, and BERK-05016C.

Split along the upper edge of the plate; two slight flared lobes below the piercings for the attachment rivets; central panel ornamented with a length of tight interlaced knotwork and a zoomorphic terminal with triangular ears, bulbous eyes and a ribbed square snout. 8.44 grams, 37 mm



Found Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK.

Both the interlace and the animal-head are drawn from the 7th-8th century manuscript tradition. This is a standard 9th century typology, seeming a nice version of the Trewhiddle style, closely allied to the early 9th century 'Tiberius' group of manuscripts, characterised by exuberant animals which are the descendants of the winged creatures and other sprightly beasts common in 8th century metalworks.

Discoid and hollow to the reverse with raised rim and shallow suspension hook with beast-head facetting; panel of three La Tène spirals and comma-leaf motifs, central void. 25.5 grams, 57 mm



Found near Grimsby, Lincolnshire, UK, circa 2010. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11893-204384.

Bowl mounts in groups of three are believed to have adorned the rim of bronze cauldrons which were used for the public dispensing of beer or mead at feasts. They are usually decorated in a manner which suggests that they were made in the north or northwest of Britain, and were either traded with the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms or, more likely, they formed part of the circulation of prestige goods among leading families in ritualised gift exchange.