BROOCH 776754

Description: An incomplete copper alloy Roman (AD 75-175) trumpet brooch, consisting of the trumpet head and the bow. The pin and catchplate are missing. The brooch measures 54.88mm in length. It weighs 11.13g. The plate-head is oval in shape with the remains of a loop projecting outwards from the centre. There are also the remains of a stud or similar, projecting upwards from the centre top of the trumpet. The head measures 13.13mm wide and 11.01mm in height. The bow curves outwards and downwards from the bottom of the head and is D-shaped in cross-section. There is an oval button, 7.65mm in diameter at its widest, which begins 24.73mm from the top of the trumpet head, and is 9.99mm in length. There is a small semi-circumferential collar of two horizontal ridges (c4mm in height) above and below this button. The button itself is decorated with four diamond or lozenge shaped features, leaving a saltire shape between them. Above the button the head of the brooch is decorated with a raised pattern of stylised foliage, creating two champleve cells on either side of the trumpet head with evidence of blue enamel. The lower part of the bow (5.96mm at its widest, below the button, and 3.00mm at its narrowest, a little above the foot) is further decorated with a raised pattern which is badly abraded. On the inside of the bow there is a low, rough, central ridge which appears to be the remains of the catchplate. The bow flares a little towards the foot which is, itself, oval (7.21mm x 4.70mm), with raised decoration on it and a with a collar above it which extends around the whole of the bottom of the bow, perhaps giving support to the catchplate. See Hattatt p328, fig 187 no 951 for a very similar brooch. 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: August 15, 2017