A superb florid cruciform brooch with highly decorative openwork border to the headplate formed as a rectangular median plate with lateral wings, enhanced with punched-pellet detail to the sides and top edge of each; raised central square panel; to the middle of each edge a Style I human mask in plan, formed as a T-shaped brow-and-nasal with two pellet eyes, with pairs of Style I profile bird-heads with curved beaks; the bow deep with facetting at each end; the footplate rectangular with Style I lappets and punched-pellet border; the transverse collar with two rows of punched-pellet detail; the finial a Style I human mask with two columns of punched-pellet detail extending to the peltoid terminal; the overall decorative effect forming a triangular band of Style I openwork ornament broken only at the bow and terminal; to the reverse pin-lugs, ferrous stain from the pin and base of the catchplate.

PROVENANCE:
Found Suffolk, UK, 2008; accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate and a copy of the book in which the brooch is published, British Artefacts vol.1, Witham, 2009.

PUBLISHED:
Hammond, B. British Artefacts vol.1 - Early Anglo-Saxon, Witham, 2009, fig.1.1.4.1-l.

FOOTNOTES:
The staring male face on the footplate, with fierce eyes and prominent moustache, probably represents a divinity such as the thunder-god, Thunor (later Thor). The god of thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protector of mankind, and also hallowing, healing and fertility, probably has his origins in the pre-Roman Germanic religion, where a god with similar attributes, but whose name is not known to us, is identified with Hercules by the Romans. During the Migration Period a deity under the name of Donar appears on jewellery and inscriptions, and Christian chronicles speak of a sacred oak tree of Donar in Germany that was felled by missionary, Saint Boniface. It is in the Viking Period that Thor becomes the pre-eminent deity of the Scandinavian countries. He had the central place at the great temple in Uppsala, Sweden, with Odin and Freyr to either side of him. His main symbol is the hammer, which is likely to be derived from the club of Donar. The raven is sacred to Odin and their presence on this brooch was possibly to evoke the protection of both gods.