BROOCH

Incomplete silvered cast copper alloy Cornish Type 31 Aesica-variant brooch dating from the Roman period. The brooch is missing the terminals of the wings and of the side arms of the cruciform bow, as well as the pin and the curved hook of the catchplate on the back of the fantail foot, but most of the wings and the cruciform bow, still with its three bossed rivets, 4 mm in diameter, intact at the head, the centre of the cross and the base arm of the cross, survive. The tubular wings still hold the copper alloy axial bar, which can be seen in section at the end of wings where they have worn away and within the notch at the back of the head. This recess also accommodated the hinge and pin which are now mainly missing, but is some iron oxide attached to the axial bar which suggests that the pin was made of iron and has corroded away. The front of the wings or cross bar is decorated with a transverse grooved arc which divides it from the head, with two recessed triangles, one on either side of the arc. The triangles would have had enamel inlay, looking at examples below, and there are patches of red material just above both of these which may be enamel combined with the copper corrosion product. Below the arc, the head has a slightly recessed triangle with one of the bossed rivets set in the middle of it. On either side of the central triangle is a raised moulded ridge as a border, 2 mm in from the edge, that descends from the wing and curves inward towards the tapering bow, and then expands to form a cruciform shape with short side arms, one still with the edge of the circular recess for its bossed rivet. The bow then tapers and expands again to form the base of the cross which overhangs the fantail foot. The foot has some incised decoration in the form of a double-tumpet pattern or palmette surrounding four recessed roundels in an arc, similar to the fantail foot of a Cornish Type 31 brooch recorded in SOM-183E93 from Kingsdon in Somerset. These roundels are 2 mm in diameter but quite shallow and are often enamelled on other examples, such as one recorded in CORN-0417DB from St. Sampson, Cornwall, but the surface of the fantail foot is entirely silvered on this brooch and there are patches of silvering on the the bow also, suggesting that the entire bow was silvered and that there was only enamel inlay in the wings. This is the first Cornish Type 31 brooch with any silvering that has been recorded of the eighteen of this type now on the database, but many of the others are incomplete and corroded and may have originally been highly decorated like this example. The style of decoration on the fantail feet of these Cornish Type 31 brooches demonstrates a flourish of late La Tene decoration, from the Iron Age, in the mid-Roman period in the west and north of Britain, so Cornish examples should be expected (Dr. J.D. Hill pers comm).

See CORN-DEC722 from St Hilary parish to see a complete example of the Cornish Type 31 brooch with a similar pattern on the wings and head, CORN-4F8B64 from St Levan parish with similar bow and side arms,and GLO-279152 for the same type of brooch with more detailed decoration and intact enamel inlay. These brooches, along with more recent discoveries from Cornwall, have been identified by Justine Bayley as Cornish Type 31 and are published in Tyacke, Bayley and Butcher (2011). The St Hilary brooch and the Kingsdon brooch are illustrated on pp.142 & 144, fig.11.1, nos.3 & 8, and dated from the mid 1st to the 2nd century AD.