LOT 0349

Frankish Silver-Gilt S-Shaped Bird Brooch with Garnets

5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.

1 1/4 in. (7.58 grams, 30 mm).

S-shaped plate brooch formed with a profile bird-head finial at each end with inset garnet cabochon eye, hatched panels and inlaid garnet cloisons; pin-lugs and catch to reverse. [No Reserve]

Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Cf. Beck, H. et al., Fibel und Fibeltracht, Berlin, 2000, item 468; similar brooches from the Frankish cemetery at Monceau-le-Neuf-et-Faucouzy, deptn Aisne, France in Menghin, W., The Merovingian Period. Europe Without Borders, item VII.23.2; and the S-fibula from Schwarz-Rheindorf, Westphalia, in Menghin, W., The Merovingian Period. Europe Without Borders, item VII.48.27.

During the mid-sixth century the S-brooch, along with the disc brooch, became popular. These were made primarily of gilded silver embellished with garnet inlays or in garnet cloisonné. Early forms of S-shaped brooches appear in graves in Scandinavia throughout the fifth century and in Europe during the first decades of the sixth century, and reached the height of their popularity during the latter half of that time. They were widespread across Europe and are found in central and western Europe, Italy, Scandinavia and Anglo-Saxon England. They generally take the form of an S-shaped body with heads at either end facing in opposite directions. The heads are generally depicted as birds but examples are known of unidentified animals with splayed open jaws, possibly dragons or wolves. The use of the head imagery is consistent with the aesthetic tendencies associated with the northern, Pagan Germanic world.