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Details
LOT 1331
Anglo-Saxon Large Bronze Cruciform Bow Brooch
LATE 5TH-EARLY 6TH CENTURY A.D.
2 3/4 in. (71 grams, 13.5 cm).
Of Martin's Type 3.2.4 (Holywell Row) featuring a trapezoidal headplate with lateral trapezoidal panels, domed knop above; deep bow with facetted ends, T-shaped footplate with lateral lappets, horse-head finial with discoid nostrils; complete ferrous pin and catchplate to the reverse, hollowed reverse to the horse-head.
Provenance
Acquired circa 1995.
From an East Anglian private collection.
Literature
Cf. Martin, T., The Cruciform Brooch and Anglo-Saxon England, Woodbridge, 2015, p.50, item 773 (from Hornsea, Yorkshire).
Footnotes
The Holywell Row type in Martin's analysis extends from the northern shore of the Thames Estuary as far as Yorkshire, but with a cluster in the Cambridge area. The edges of the headplate show the faintest traces of punched detailing, if this is not the result of the original clean-up when the brooch was taken from its mould; similar marks can be discerned on the footplate below the junction with the bow. The finial shows little zoomorphic detailing but the nostrils are characteristic of the type. The presence of the pin is remarkable.
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LOT 1331
Anglo-Saxon Large Bronze Cruciform Bow Brooch
Estimate £350 - 450€410 - 520 (for guidance only)$470 - 610 (for guidance only)
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The brooch has many of the characteristics of Hines's Group X but also bears a strong resemblance to an unclassified example from Barrington A, Cambridgeshire (Hines, 1997, pl.101). The frieze of facing masks which forms the border to the headplate has echoes of contemporary motifs found on the headplate of the brooch from Fridaythorpe (Hines, 1997, pl.8(b)) and the crests of helmets such as Valsgarde mounds 5 and 7 (Sweden) - see Mortimer, 2011, p.32-35). The inverted mask on the finial echoes the 7th century shield-fitting from Vall, Gotland (Franceschi et al, 2005, pl.209). The significance of the mask motifs has been discussed in the cited works of Franceschi et al and Mortimer. A link to generations of deified ancestors is one possibility.
