Plate brooch with raised rim and four applied knops (two absent); central disc surrounding by four radiating arms extending to D-shaped panels at the rim where the knops are attached; the interstitial fields with dense reserved meander-pattern ornament; pierced at the centre with a second eccentrically-placed hole and another offset hole at the end of one of the 'arms'; part of the rim absent; accompanied by a custom-made display stand.

PROVENANCE:
Found Harston, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Ex Essex collection formed in the 1980s.
From the collection of Dirk Kennis, Belgium.

LITERATURE:
See Bain, G., Celtic Art - The Methods of Construction, reprinted London, 1996.

FOOTNOTES:
The 'key pattern' design appears in Irish and Scottish (Pictish) metalwork and carved stone such as the Nigg Stone (Ross Shire, Scotland) as well as in the borders of the Book of Kells. Recorded, studied, and determined by the Secretary of State’s Expert Adviser as an object of cultural interest. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) considered an application to export this object. The Committee concluded that the object satisfied the third Waverley criterion and is therefore currently not exportable.