BROOCH

Treasure case 2012T503.

Description and Dimensions: Silver disc brooch, 49.5-50.0mm in diameter,with extensive niello inlay. The edge is decorated with bold beading, each bead oval and about 1.5mm across. The beading is interrupted at one point (the 'top' of the brooch) by two longer curves with a point in between; in each of the curves is a small circular hole, perhaps to take a suspension loop. The holes may originally have been c. 1.7mm in diameter, but are now largely blocked by iron corrosion.

Within the beaded border is a narrow groove, and within this is a narrow silver ridge. Then comes a broad band of niello-inlaid decoration divided into four by reserved circles, each of which originally carried a separate dome-headed silver rivet. One of the rivets is adjacent to the pair of small suspension holes, and if this is held toward the top the right-hand rivet (as you look at it) is missing. Much of the niello inlay around this rivet hole is also missing, helping to distinguish between the reserved silver areas (below the polished but still proud surface of the niello inlay) and the shiny silvery decomposed niello. Keying to hold the niello can be seen in the empty grooves.

Although the decoration is subtly different in each of the four fields, those opposite each other seem to have broadly similar designs. It is also quite hard to work out, perhaps because the niello appears to be spreading beyond the confines of the grooves engraved to contain it. Clockwise from 12 o'clock with the suspension holes held at the top, the first field contains a pair of addorsed Trewhiddle-style animals with their heads looking backwards over their shoulders towards each other. They are broadly similar to each other, with jagged edges to their chests (perhaps indicating the mane of a lion) and longitudinal stripes on their bodies. Each has a reserved lappet extending from the back of the head, a niello dot for an eye, and an open mouth. The front foot is simply depicted as a round-ended line but the rear foot appears to point upwards and have three toes. The tails interlace with each other in a relatively simple knot.

The second field contains a similar Trewhiddle-style animal with striped body, but looking right, the head not turned backwards, and with a tail interlacing with itself. There is a shape in front of the head which may indicate that the animal is biting at a plant.

The third field appears to contain two addorsed animals in profile with their heads turned backwards to look at each other. The left-hand animal appears bigger, and has a long lappet extending from the back of the head. Again, the tails interlace in a relatively simple loop.

The final field is heavily obscured by corrosion, but the elements visible (such as a jagged edge that may be a mane) seem to indicate that it is another animal.

The inner edge of the niello-inlaid band is formed from a ridge of silver, and then a ring of similar bold oval beading as is found on the outer border but set within a broad groove. Next is another silver ridge, and then comes an inner zone of decoration, this time in bold and deep chip-carved relief which has in several places broken through to the reverse, although it does not seem that an openwork effect was intended.

The motif in the centre consists of two writhing animals, each with a niello-inlaid circular eye with a nielloed line running downwards from its rear edge to form a comma shape. They each have a curly lappet at the back of the head, and no obvious limbs. The bodies run over half the circle each, knotted on themselves in three half-hitches forming curved and angled loops; they do not interlace with each other.

The treatment of the tails is slightly different between the two; one has a pair of transverse grooves and then forks into two near the other animal's mouth; this may be biting at it, or one of the forks may turn into the animal's lower jaw. The other tail has a tendril leading off it close to the end, which bifurcates, and then another fork or bifurcation at the end; there are no transverse grooves here. The other animal is clearly biting at one of the ends of the tail.

In the centre is a raised flat-topped boss with a fine engraved line very close to its edge, and in the middle of this is a fifth separate silver rivet; all of the rivets are roughly the same size, 4-4.5mm in diameter.

On the reverse, the missing rivet, centre rivet and one side rivet can be seen to hold a separate pin and catchplate, made from a single strip of silver which is expanded at each rivet. The pin and spring are now missing, but the curled catchplate is intact. It is sited right at the rim of the brooch, but is not visible from the front.

Both faces have patches of thin orange corrosion, perhaps from iron in the soil. This corrosion or staining masks some aspects of the decoration.

Discussion and Date: The design of this brooch, with a central motif and surrounding frieze, can be compared with a 10th- or 11th-century brooch found in Thames Street, London, now in the British Museum (accession number 1856,0701.1461). On the whole, however, it fits better into a group of 9th-century brooches with separate one-piece pin-and-catchplate fixed on with three of the five rivets. Examples include the copper-alloy brooch from Evington Brook, Leicester, dated to the early 9th century (Webster and Backhouse 1991, no. 186), the five larger brooches from Pentney, dated to the second quarter of the 9th century (Webster and Backhouse 1991, 187 a-e; Webster 2012. fig. 112), and the openwork silver brooch from the Beeston Tor hoard, deposited c. 875 (Webster and Backhouse 1991, no. 245a). The Pentney brooches have the combination of niello-inlaid and relief animal ornament, and the Beeston Tor brooch has similar bold beading; the Evington Brook brooch also has a hole, perhaps for a suspension device or 'keeper'. In addition, the shaping around the two perforations echoes the shaped tops of many 9th-century strap-ends, confirming the date.