Roman 'Essex' Bronze Cockerel Brooch

Of penannular form, decorative panels with ring-and-dot and line designs separated by narrow decorative bands. 26 grams, 69 mm



From the collection of a High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK, gentleman, circa 2000.

Triangular with dense block of floral-scroll motifs, beaded borders; pierced at the angle for attachment. 5.57 grams, 58 mm



Private collection formed in the 1990s. Acquired from a central London gallery. Property of an Essex gentleman.

By the second half of the 4th century, broad Roman military belts were decorated with chip-carved mounts and plates. The fittings were realised by punching or by chip carving different patterns and motifs.

Comprising a large quantity of pottery and red-ware sherds from large and small vessels, including an amphora neck and part of a handle. 586 grams total, 7-74 mm



Found near Vechten, Netherlands. Netherlands private collection. Acquired from a private collector in 2009. Property of a Nottinghamshire gentleman. Accompanied by a typed information sheet.

Fectio, modern Vechten, was a fort in the limes, the frontier zone of the Roman Empire, situated at the site of the bifurcation of the rovers Rhine and Vecht. Numismatic evidence suggests that it was founded by the Roman general Tiberius (the future emperor) during the 4/5th campaigns. It probably served as a military base during punitive raids. Around the middle of the 2nd century AD, the wood and earth fort was replaced by a stone fortification and occupied by the Ala I Thracum, who had previously been stationed in Britain. At the end of the 2nd/beginning of the 3rd century, the silting up of the Rhine’s arm on which Fectio lays had progressed to such an extent that access from the river was no longer possible. In the more than two and a half centuries of its existence, the camp was destroyed and rebuilt several times until the fort site was finally abandoned - as evidenced by archaeological traces of fire after a final destruction in 270/275 A.D.