BROOCH

Part of a copper alloy Roman brooch; a trumpet headed derivative type dating from AD 75 - 200, but not enough of the brooch survives to classify it thoroughly. Unusually, this brooch has an applied strip of silver sheet or foil decorating the centre of the head.

The brooch has a trumpet head with a loop projecting backwards which holds the copper alloy axis bar. The spring has six turns and the internal chord is missing, but a notch in the base of the loop shows where it once sat. The ends of the axis bar are broken and they may have extended into a wire headloop which is now missing. The pin is also absent.

The head of the brooch is decorated with moulded concentric crescents on the outer sides and a central panel which has a moulded ring and dot at the top, and then straight lines flanking a plain area which run down the length of the bow. It is this central panel which has the silver applied over the moulding. The lower bow of the brooch is missing; the break where the acanthus button would be is rough and patinated. The metal has a smooth mid green patina.

The use of applied silver is similar to Alcester brooches such as SWYOR-14EF37 but this brooch clearly does not have the join between the lower edge of the trumpet and the central plate that is characteristic of these brooches. It is similar to WILT-3DC457. In Mackreth, the most similar brooches appear to be his Trumpet Variety 3 (page 125 ff) but without the central knop or plate and foot surviving, the brooch cannot be more closely classified. He says: "all these brooches were once decorated with applied repousse white metal trim". See plate 86.

The brooch is 15.61mm long, 16.04mm wide and 19mm thick. 8.41g. The bow is oval in section at the break and is 6mm thick and 5mm wide.