Image: Early-Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) Kentish Keystone Brooch. Treasure case no. 2010 T524 (FindID 406067)

Description: An incomplete Early-Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) silver-gilt disc brooch. This brooch is decorated with three evenly spaced keystone garnets surrounding a central roundel. The keystone garnets have hatched gold foil backing, all apparently of the same design of squares divided into nine; one garnet has a linear fracture. The fields between the garnets abutting the roundel are very dirty, but appear to be decorated with three identical Style I animals, each with a C-shaped double-strand head frame angled towards the garnet, then a body of perhaps four strands (one at least of the inner ridges are beaded) and another symmetrical head. The central roundel has an undecorated frame and contains a residue of discoloured off-white material. A raised flat rim has cast interlocking triangles inlaid with niello, forming a repeated zigzag pattern; the niello is very mineralised and so it is hard to distinguish them against the silver. The edge is battered, but appears to have a pair of circumferential grooves; there is a further circumferential groove around the edge of the reverse. The reverse has a single D-shaped pin-lug and the stub of a catch-plate, as well as some irregularities which look like corrosion bubbles. The pin lug has a very small hole for the pin. Nearly a third of the edge is missing; the breaks are neither particularly old nor particularly fresh. The find contains a minimum of 10% silver and predates 1710. It thus qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996 in terms of precious metal content and age. Diameter: 40.7mm; thicknes: 12.0mm. Weight: 15.41g. This brooch belongs to Avent's Class 3, with 'reversed heads' at either end of a single body. It is perhaps closest to Avent's no. 100, his single example of his Class 3.4, which has the same multiple straight ridges for the body. It dates to the late 6th century.
Title: Early-Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) Kentish Keystone Brooch. Treasure case no. 2010 T524
Credit: https://finds.org.uk/database/ajax/download/id/438896 Catalog: https://finds.org.uk/database/images/image/id/438896/recordtype/artefacts archive copy Artefact: https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/406067
Author: The Portable Antiquities Scheme, Frank Basford, 2013-09-11 14:21:14
Permission: Attribution-ShareAlike License version 4.0 (verified 28 November 2020)
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Attribution Required?: Yes