BROOCH

Copper-alloy disc brooch with Borre-style decoration. It is a slightly irregular disc, 29-30 mm in diameter, and is slightly convex. In the centre there is a double ridged circle, and around this are Borre-style ring-knots. Three radiating rectangles alternate with three quadrilaterals, which have three concave edges and one convex edge, the latter nearest to the rim of the brooch. The outer corners of the quadrilaterals each extend to form a double ribbon; the inner corners are extended to link up with the inner corners of the rectangles. The double ribbons loop downwards and inwards over this link and then upwards and outwards, over themselves and underneath the rectangles, where they join the next double ribbon. The rim is beaded. The beading has worn off in a number of places and the double ribbon has also worn smooth in places; it is also possible that the rectangles and the quadrilaterals may originally have had some dot decoration. On the reverse is a transverse pin lug encrusted with the corroded remains of the iron pin, and a catchplate; there is no suspension loop.

The Borre style was used both by Scandinavian craftsmen of the late 9th and 10th century and Anglo-Scandinavian craftsmen of the 10th century. The circular design based on groups of three (rather than four) repeating elements, as well as the slightly domed shape, points to this brooch being a Scandinavian form.

This brooch was published first in Geake (2004, 242; fig. 3d).

Update: This brooch has now since been published by Jane Kershaw (2013, 76-7, fig. 3.37, cat. no. 345) and allocated to her Type VI within Terslev-style brooches. The Terslev style is a geometric variant of the Borre style and Kershaw comments that the Hemingstone brooch is likely to be "a product of Anglo-Scandinavian interaction, probably produced in a Danelaw workshop." Compare SWYOR-274097, a silver brooch with a similar tripartite design.