Frankish Bronze Beast Facing Back Plate Brooch

6TH CENTURY A.D.

1 in. (5.59 grams, 25.75 mm).

Formed as a hippocampus with s-shaped body, central band of chip-carved zigzags, triangular ear and chevron mouth, crescentic leg beneath the body; three dots to the head; pin-lug and catchplate to the reverse. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Found Brisly, Norfolk, UK.

Literature

Cf. example from Mill Hill, Kent, in Brugmann, B., The Role of Continental Artefact-Types in Sixth Century Kentish Chronology, in Hines, J. et al., The Pace of Change, Studies in Early Medieval Chronology, Oxford, 1999, fig.3.4, phase II; similar S-shaped fibulas from Marchélepot, France, in Menghin, W., The Merovingian Period. Europe Without Borders, Berlin, 2007, item VIII.17.17.

CONDITION

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LOT 1500