A hollow-formed gold oval plate brooch with braided filigree border, concentric bands of bosses and applied filigree guilloche, beaded wire collar with applied granules; central dome with cell, inset truncated oval sardonyx cabochon, intaglio profile bust of Apollo, applied catch and two hoops to the reverse.

PROVENANCE:
From a late 1990s private collection; formerly acquired on the UK art market in the early 1980s; accompanied by a copy of a report from Striptwist Ltd, a London-based company run by historical precious metal specialist Dr Jack Ogden, reference number 191011, and an independent specialist report and valuation by graduate gemmologist and jewellery expert Anna Rogers, GIA GG, BA, Gem-A, ref. no. 0532/02/06/2020; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.155129-10028.

LITERATURE:
See Tait, H. ed., 7000 Years Of Jewelry, The British Museum Press, London, 2009, item. 246, for an example bearing some stylistic comparison; see Hattatt, R., A Visual Catalogue of Richard Hattatt's Ancient Brooches, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2000, esp. pp.342-347, for a series of discoid brooches and pp.364-365, for oval examples.

FOOTNOTES:
The soldered join of stepped form used to form the sheet gold side wall of the brooch is rare in jewellery created before the Migration Period (say, 5th-6th century AD) and this brooch may be among the earliest examples of the joint in existence.