Brooch

A large square headed brooch which retains much of its original gilding. The front of the brooch is decorated with chip carved animal ornament and three dimensional stylised masks. The mount is decorated with an animal ornament of the Germanic Style II, arranged concentrically in two zones. The interlace design in the outer zone is of an unusual layout and highly stylised representing the body of a snake like creature, its jaws clamped around itself. Instead of the common type of the internwined ribbon ornament, the creature's body is depicted as a solid frame with four slit like openings through which some of the long interlace strands denoting the jaws are wound. This feature is only known in a few examples including the Sutton Hoo gold buckle. The inner zone is wider that the outer and is separated from it by another three tiered raised border. There are quadrupeds with S-shaped bodies and back turned heads, their long jaws clamped around themselves. The foreleg of each animal and hind quarter of the creature preceding it are interwined. The large central and four smaller settings of the outer zone are now empty but they would have had decorative bosses, made probably out of bone or shell with a decorative garnet roundel in the middle. The fitting or mount was at some point reused as secondary holes were drilled next to at least one of the outer bosses.