Details

LOT 555

Anglo-Saxon Gilt Bronze Great Square-Headed Brooch

6TH CENTURY AD

5" (51 grams, 13.5 cm).

An elaborate great square-headed brooch of Hines's Group XIII; the headplate trapezoidal, with three concentric rectangles to the interior; the innermost rectangle is formed as a raised panel with bevelled edges; the second decorated with punched pellets along the lower, lateral and upper edges, surrounded by a meander pattern; the outermost with punched pellets along the lower, lateral and upper edges; the rectangular corner panels with punchmarks formed as roundels each with a bifurcated extension; the bow with substantial median and lateral ribs extending to two curved animal-head upper extensions above a cruciform footplate, each with two circular piercings; to the reverse, the catchplate present; significant gilding remaining.

Provenance

Found Cambridgeshire, UK.

Literature

Cf. Hines, J. A New Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed Brooches, London, 1997 p.103ff and pl.43b; cf. Neville, R.C. Saxon Obsequies Illustrated by Ornaments and Weapons Discovered by the Hon. R.C. Neville in a Cemetery near Little Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire During the Autumn of 1851, London, 1852, pl.10, no.158. Published: Hammond, B. British Artefacts, volume I - Early Anglo-Saxon.

CONDITION