BROOCH

Headplate, bow and separate footplate fragment of a large early Saxon copper alloy cruciform brooch. Headplate has slightly concave sides and convex ends (one of which is eroded back from its original edge) with an integral half-round moulded top-knob on centreline. The knob has a twin grooved collar where it meets the headplate, with a waist leading to a cleft half-round dome-shaped terminal end. The flat end of the knob adjacent to the waist and the area flanking the cleft are both decorated with twin grooves. On the reverse of the headplate and perpendicular to it, is a semicircular pin-lug with substantial remains of the iron spring. The bow rises from the head plate initially in a rectangular plinth which adjoins the V-section bow. Where the bow is peaked along its centre and where the plinth meets are decorative twin grooved lines. The extant sides of the headplate border are decorated in ring and dot. The end of the bow terminates in an old break; however, there is sufficient register in the fracture surfaces at the break, patina and similarity in decorative style to conclude that a separate fragment submitted for identification is actually the footplate of the same brooch. It is trapezoidal in shape with transverse twin-groove decorations. It terminates at an old break just beyond a transverse reel and narrow bead feature. Projecting from the rear side and along the full length of the fragment is the web and a small amount of the return of the catchplate. Extant length of both fragments recombined is 80mm, extant width 51mm. Circa AD 475-550.