Plate brooch with integral coiled spring and stub of the pin to one end; raised border enclosing a dense panel of 'Mercian Style' foliage in high-relief with central stud.

PROVENANCE:
Ex Colchester, UK, collection, formed 1980s-1990s.
From the collection of Dirk Kennis, Belgium.

LITERATURE:
Cf. a similar lozengiform brooch in the collection of Market Hall Museum, Warwick under Accession no. 53/11726; Hammond, B., British Artefacts vol.2 - Middle Saxon & Viking, Witham, 2010 p.44-5; Weetch, R., Brooches in Late Anglo-Saxon England within a North West European Context: A Study of Social Identities Between the Eighth and Eleventh Centuries, Unpublished PhD Thesis: University of Reading, 2013.

FOOTNOTES:
Lozenge brooches (known as Weetch (2014) Type 31.C ) are not a frequently found type in British archaeology; the British Museum's records list only 34 such items, almost all found in the East Midlands or the Winchester area. 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.