BROOCH 721740

Description: An incomplete copper alloy Roman (AD 75-175) trumpet brooch, consisting of the trumpet head (with incomplete head-loop) and the bow. The pin is missing. The brooch measures 53.96mm in length. It weighs 16.16g. The plate-head is oval in shape with the remains of a loop projecting at the centre top of the curved edge. The head measures 16.25mm wide and 13.70mm high including the remains of the loop which projects 2.65mm beyond the trumpet head. The bow curves outwards and downwards from the bottom of the head and is D-shaped in cross-section. There is an oval button, 8.96mm in diameter at its widest, which begins 24.43mm from the top of the trumpet head, and is 9.60mm in length. Above the button the head of the brooch is decorated with a blue, red and yellow enamelled symmetrical curvilinear pattern. The button is decorated with leaf-like mouldings, one at the top and two below. A narrower band (4.92mm in length) lies immediately below the button, the bow then tapering away towards the foot. There is horizontal moulding on the band. The lower part of the bow (5.35mm at its widest, below the band, and 3.35mm at its narrowest, above the foot) is further decorated with a chevron pattern of ?red enamel. The foot is made up of a narrow band (1.13mm) which extends inwards to create the lower part of the catch-plate, and a moulded five-sided button which has an insert in the end which possibly held a stone or further enamel decoration. The catch-plate is 9.09mm at its widest, the edge no longer curled inwards to hold the pin, and extends up to the band below the button near the top of the bow. cf Hattatt p328, fig 187 no 445 In "Roman Brooches in Britain: A Technological and Typological Study based on the Richborough Collection", Bayley and Butcher state that trumpet headed brooches, "...are the most original products of the British brooch industry in the Roman period" (2004, p160). The distinctive head is thought to derive from some pre-Roman Aylesford brooches (ibid.). In her "Roman Brooch Timeline", Worrell (2007) dates trumpet brooches to AD 75-175

Date: 75 - 175

Object type: BROOCH

Last import: September 22, 2022