Circular Brooches
There are many types of circular brooches, usually worn in pairs on the shoulders.   Particular types were more common in different regions and at different times.

Applied Brooches
In pristine condition these would have resembled the saucer brooches described below.   Applied brooches are sometimes characterized as cheaper imitations of the more robust saucer type(which are invariably produced as one piece castings) although, in fact, it is the applied variety that are the earlier of the two; both types later remained in use contemporaneously.    The processes of decay have accentuated the differences in detail and slighter construction which the manufacturers of applied brooches would have been at pains to camouflage.

The term ‘applied brooch’ draws particular attention to the fact that the decoration here is  neither cast nor chased on to the interior, but is applied ready-made as an embossed disc of copper-alloy foil, usually gilt.   These discs are fixed in place with solder, seemingly applied as a thin coating to the back-plate and re-melted with the foil held in close contact.

Several other constructional features distinguish these from the comparatively well made saucer brooches.   While a few of the back-plates have integral rims in the manner of saucer brooches, and a few are of cast construction, the majority are of sheet metal, made as composite structures with rims that have been produced as separate units and soldered into place.   The back-plates may be flat, but many are dished to some extent.   Most of the separately made rims are produced as thin strips of sheet metal whose ends are soldered together before assembly.   A few are overlapped, occasionally riveted, and in a few cases these plates are formed as an extension of the back plate itself.   Normally they adopt a slightly flaring profile, but some are arranged at right angles to the back plate.   Many of these rims have now become detached or are absent altogether, but it seems likely that all applied brooches were originally fitted with them to protect the edges of the delicate foil.

Cast fastenings are understandably absent on these sheet metal brooches.   Most commonly the hinge and catch are each produced from a thin strip of metal, inserted through a slot cut in the back-plate and held in place by bending over the ends.   Some of these appear to be secured with solder; this may derive from the same coating of solder applied inside the brooch to fix the foil.   Breakages seem to have been common, and since the presence of the foil made it difficult or impossible to insert replacement fastenings through the back, these were commonly soldered on the outside; other such soldered fastenings are undoubtedly original.   Fastening pins were normally of iron, but occasionally examples in copper-alloy are found, perhaps representing repairs.

The decorative foils were first embossed with their ornamental schemes by impressing them with a prepared matrix.   Since many identical foils could have been produced from a single matrix, it is to be expected that many surviving pairs of brooches will have closely matched foils, and this is indeed the case.   A number of them have central holes which in some cases still retain a centrally mounted glass cabochon or a decorative bronze stud..

On the Continent the type developed in the late fourth century, particularly in the North German province between the Elbe and Weser.   In England those from Dorchester are likely to be among the earliest examples yet recorded, dating to the last decade of the fourth century or early decades of the fifth.   Others, often with Style I zoomorphic ornament, are firmly of sixth century origin.

Saucer Brooches
Brooches of this type were characteristically produced as a single casting, whose dished forms give rise to their name.   Normally, women (and, occasionally, young girls) wore them in pairs at the shoulder or the breast.   They vary in size from about 7.5cm diameter down to about 2.5cm (but see also button brooches below).   Rim forms normally conform to one of three profiles: angular (the majority, flared, or acutely upturned.   Hinges, consisting of single or double lugs which are perforated for the pin axis, and catches in the form of single lugs with simple recurved tops, are cast on the reverse.   Pins, as revealed by intact or fragmentary examples or by traces of corrosion, are invariably of iron, anchored around and threaded through the hinge standard before being formed into a spring coil with one or two turns; on double hinges, the coil lies between the two lugs.

Decoration is confined to the flattened central area, while the rim is left plain.   Identical ornament on some pairs of brooches clearly indicates that they have originated from the same mould, or at least the same model.   Occurrences of variations in detail are more common than exact identity, however, and these carry implications which are important, though at times difficult to interpret, in the detailed assessment of the methods of production involved.   In some cases the cast decorative scheme is complemented by punched ornament.   Running spirals seem to form the most common ornament, followed by stars, with a variety of other schemes occurring less often.   Most saucer brooches are gilt on the front; on some examples the gilding survives imperfectly or not at all, but XRF analysis suggests that originally all of them may have been gilt.

Saucer brooches belong mainly to the fifth and sixth centuries, although some production survived into the early decades of the seventh century.

Button Brooches
In form and construction this type is identical to the saucer brooches described above.   They are distinguished by their small size – typically around 2cm in diameter – and by their regular preference for anthropomorphic face-masks (invariably male) as the principal decorative element.    Unlike saucer brooches, however, which were regularly worn as pairs at the shoulders of women (and often young girls), less than half the button brooches with recorded positions were found like this and as a type they may have performed a range of functions as dress-fasteners.   The largest examples are just over 3cm in diameter and are comparable in size to the smaller saucer brooches, but are usually classed as button brooches on account of their decoration.

Although commonly stylized, many of the represented features provide insights into contemporary fashions in the wearing of hair, moustaches, etc.    The type is distributed throughout most of southern England, and in date generally belong to the fifth and sixth centuries.

Disc Brooches
Although some attention was paid to disc brooches by Baldwin Brown (in 1915) and by Leeds (in 1945) extensive treatment came only with Tania Dickinson’s invaluable thesis (in 1976) and subsequently in a lengthy essay by the same author (in 1979).   Being remarkable largely for their uniformity of size (average diameter 3.6cm) and appearance, such analysis as is offered by Dickinson is necessarily confined to the decorative patterns incised or punched on the front face of these brooches.

Little variation can be detected in technique of manufacture.   All are made of copper alloy, with the vast majority being simple discs cast with an integral hinge and catch on the reverse.   Double hinges are occasionally encountered and in several instances the catches are markedly elongated – an early fifth century feature when encountered on the more closely datable saucer brooches.   The pins fastening disc brooches are almost invariably of iron.   A very few are of composite construction, having a sheet metal back plate with an applied plate carrying the decoration and with inserted fastenings, all in the manner of applied brooches.

Almost all the decoration found on these brooches is scribed or stamped on the surface after casting; the only exceptions may be the broad concentric grooves found on a few brooches.   Incised concentric circles and ring-and-dot motifs account for most of the patterns encountered, frequently complimented by concentric patterns of smaller punch marks – annulets, crescents (usually produced with an annular stamp held at an angle), triangles, and V- or S-stamps.   A central dot forms a common feature, no doubt representing the axis around which a scriber has been rotated; in some instances the dot is markedly deep and often the brooch is completely perforated at the centre.   Not infrequently the periphery of the brooch is notched.   Tinning is common on these brooches (especially on the more highly decorated examples), but gilding is not encountered, adding to the impression that they occupy a position complementary to that of the saucer and applied brooches of the more affluent sections of Saxon society (and corresponding to the position occupied by annular brooches in Anglian areas).

There are no obvious Continental prototypes for these brooches, which seem to have been an insular Anglo-Saxon development.   As a whole the type tends to occur south of a line from the Severn to The Wash.   Within this region the upper Thames valley is particularly productive and may have formed a major production centre.   Their date range spans the fifth and 6th centuries (mainly the mid-fifth to mid-sixth century), with little evidence for formal development within that period.

Openwork Disc Brooches
These are really just a sub-group of the ordinary disc brooch with cut-out patterns.   They are most common in the Midlands with a few outliers in Kent.   Commonly cross and swastika patterns are formed by the cut-outs.   Many also bear punched decoration.   Other than the cut outs they are very close to the basic disc brooch.

Jewelled (Kentish) Disc Brooches or Keystone Brooches
Garnet inlaid brooches of this type are amongst the most characteristic finds from Kentish graves of the mid- to late-sixth century.   They have in common a cast construction (though some have a separately applied rim) and a composition of silver, alloyed to some degree with base metal.   The decorative schemes encountered normally feature a central circular cell inlaid with white material and sometimes a jewelled (or rarely glass) setting.    Further cells arranged concentrically and sometimes referred to as ‘keystone’ settings generally contain garnets, usually trapezoid or T-shaped in outline, but occasionally triangular; settings of coloured glass also occur.   Some brooches have intermediate cells, generally circular, again containing white material, sometimes in combination with gem settings.   The background is commonly filled with fields of Style I animal ornament and enclosed by a raised border with punched decoration inlaid with niello, sometimes further inset with small garnets.   The rim is most often beaded and decorated with zones of ribbing.

The thin slips of garnet mounted on these brooches were produced by splitting the parent crystal along its natural planes of cleavage by means of thermal or physical shock, by polishing the surfaces, and by shaping the garnets with an abrasive stone, possibly in the form of a wheel.   It seems likely that, for the most part, they were imported ready-made from Frankish workshops.   The garnet settings are usually backed by foils, invariably of gold where they can be examined, stamped repeatedly with overall patterns of dots to form a hatched effect; in some instances it can be seen that groups of dots have been produced by the teeth of a single gridded punch.   It appears that the foils were produced as sheets, punched overall before being cut to size.   Stamps of wood or bone have been suggested as being particularly suitable for this purpose; during attempts to replicate the effect experimentally, ivory was found to perform well.   The white material in brooches of this type has been subjected to analysis, but without conclusive result although shell seems likely.

Jewelled Disc Brooches of Applied Plate Type
These are distinguished from the previous type by having much of their decoration executed on an annular gold plate, soldered onto a back-plate of cast silver.   The front-plate forms a frame around a central circular cell which itself is worked on the back-plate; originally the central cell was filled with white material, although this survives on very few extant examples.   Frequently the front-plate is in turn framed by a raised border, worked on or applied to the back-plate.   Secondary circular cells arranged around the periphery are in most cases formed on the surface of the front plate, some having small central holes which may have held rivets for attachment to the back-plate or for jewelled settings which have become detached; in other cases these cells too were formed on the back-plate and fitted into corresponding holes on the front-plate.

Jewelled inlays, most often of foil-backed garnets but occasionally of glass, are set in cloisons arranged in bands or individual cells.   The intervening areas of the front-plates of these brooches are filled with filigree decoration, usually arranged in concentric bands.

Although found occasionally in other areas, this type is again primarily Kentish.

Jewelled Composite Disc Brooches
These are the most elaborate of the Kentish garnet-inlaid brooches.   They are also generally the largest in size, although a few are comparable in size with the larger Keystone brooches described above.   The cloisonné and cellular decoration on these brooches is applied to a base-plate, sometimes apparently of gold but not invariably so; since the front-plate is normally entirely hidden by applied decoration, gold might have been considered an unnecessary luxury here.   The cloisons themselves are certainly of gold in some instances, but in others they are of copper-alloy.    By the mid seventh century the quality of these brooches is starting to deteriorate , perhaps reflecting a scarcity of gold and good-quality garnets.

The back plates of these brooches are generally of base silver.   In some examples the visible back plate is apparently riveted to an inner copper alloy plate.

The front- and back-plates are brought together in the form of a sandwich, with the centre formed by a layer of lime plaster; the plaster both unites the thin plates and separates them to form a more substantial structure (some of the biggest of these brooches are 1cm thick at the rim).   Rivets passing from the front-plate to the back-plate add rigidity to some brooches, whilst a separate rim of gold or gilt copper-alloy binds the whole structure together.

Garnet and glass settings backed by hatched foils form the common decoration on the front.   Calcitic material in some cloisons may have formed both packing and adhesive, but other cloisons were deliberately inset with white as part of the decorative scheme.    The larger settings or bosses enclosed in circular cells may have been of shell, as in the keystone brooches.   The inset gold panels, some with Style II ornament, which alternate with the cells on almost all examples, were also bedded in plaster.   Cruciform arrangements are prominent in the ornamental schemes of these brooches, but no Christian connotation should be applied to them.   However, they may have formed part of the new Christian style clothing that went with the newly arrived religion.

Rosette Brooches
These are a sub-group of the other jewelled brooches, and like them are concentrated in Kent.   They usually consist of a silver backing in a disc or rosette shape, with radiating cells set with garnets, and a circular cell in the center containing white material.

They belong to a Frankish type of rosette brooches that have a diameter of 2-3cm and cells filled with foil-backed garnet, pearl, bone or coloured glass.   Production of such brooches began in the first quarter of the 6th century and became most common in its second quarter.   A few were still being worn in the second half of the same century.  Most of those found in England were probably imports.

Tutulus brooches
These brooches are very rare, and when found in Anglo-Saxon contexts are generally old and incomplete.   They are thought to represent possessions of first generation, early fifth-century immigrants.

This type of brooch is of Roman origin, generally produced from the late second to fourth century.   It was a brooch of simple form with a circular domed body rising to point in centre and with a raised rim around perimeter. 

Quoit Brooches
An early style, possibly influenced by Late Romano-British craftsmen following the designs of Romano British Quoit belt buckles.   They combine annular and penannular elements.   They are found almost exclusively in Kent and are often decorated in a semi-naturalistic style with animal ornament.   This style, termed Quoit Brooch Style, seems to form the link between late Roman art and Anglo-Saxon zoomorphic styles. 

Annular Brooches
These common brooches are modest equivalents of the larger and more elaborate silver quoit brooches characteristic of early fifth-century Kent.   A derivation from sub-Roman types, as suggested by Leeds, is no longer accepted and the most recent work on them presents a convincing case for a derivation among brooches of Northern Germany and southern Scandinavia.   Those brooches with broad, sheet metal bands, some of them pushed out into convex profiles, most closely resemble the more precious types from a formal viewpoint.   In others the annular body of some of the brooches is formed by riveting together the ends of a forged strip, while some are of cast construction.   The majority are more-or-less flat, but several examples feature bosses or bands of cast segmental form.

Apart from differences in the construction of the band, the most significant technological variations are in the form of the slot and of the axis for the pin.   The slot may be bounded by a moulded ridge, may have upturned or recurved sides to inhibit the pin from slipping out (corresponding to the pairs of rivets or pin-stops found on the more elaborate quoit brooches), or it may be formed as a simple notch.   Many brooches have no notch whatsoever, so that the dress material must have been pulled through the ring in order to be pierced by the pin.   The loop of the pin is most commonly anchored through a hole in the band, sometimes elongated by drilling two intersecting perforations.   Several of the more substantial cast brooches have an axis formed by a construction in the band.   Pins are invariably of iron.   In a few cases, particularly with cast examples, little or no trace of the pin remains and there are no obvious points for its attachment.   In these cases it is possible the fabric was pulled through the ring then secured with a separate iron pin.

Tinning on the front is a common decorative feature.   Further decoration is supplied by incised radial lines or punched decoration.

When found in situ this type is found exclusively in women’s graves, usually worn in pairs at the shoulders, ranging in date from the later fifth century (when they are rare finds) to the seventh century; the more substantial types seem generally to belong amongst the later brooches.   Their distribution is concentrated most heavily in the Anglian territories, but extends as far as the upper Thames valley and from Yorkshire to Kent.

Having problems with this webpage contact: questions@costumeclassroom.com