A large gilt copper-alloy pin head of discoid form, displaying a central knop and stylised chip-carved flower head cross with scrolling volutes to the head of each of four petals and tendrils between; perforated lug to the apex; later secondary piercing beside the rim and ferrous rivet.

PROVENANCE:
Found UK.
Acquired in the 1990s.
From a North Yorkshire private collection, UK.

LITERATURE:
See Hinton, D.A., Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins, Oxford, 2006, plate D, for similar.

FOOTNOTES:
The item began as one of a set of pin-heads for the headdress of a high-status female. Subsequently the edge was pierced in two places and a rivet passed through one hole - if the other hole also accepted a rivet it has been lost. The floral decoration terminates in narrow triangular vine-leaf motifs which appear elsewhere in Trewhiddle Style art.