School/style: Trewhiddle style
Cultures/periods: Late Anglo-Saxon
Production date: 9thC(mid)
Materials: silver; gold; niello; glass
Slightly convex disc-shaped brooch made of sterling silver leaf with inlaid gold and niello ornamentation. The zoomorphic ornament is deeply carved and pierced to create an openwork effect. Inside the beaded rim in the area of alternating disc and diamond-shaped patterns is the main decorative field, consisting of a central hollow cross-shaped pattern with a boss in the center and tips in the form of animal heads, with a four-leaf, whose ledges end with the same animal heads: all heads are (or were) equipped with blue glass eyes and connected by a beaded circle. This, in turn, creates auxiliary fields, each of which contains a Truhiddle puppy-like beast. Four more bosses are located around the perimeter, behind the heads of the four-leafed animals. Numerous gold inlays are hammered into the decoration, and dyeing and beading are also used extensively. Attached to one edge of the brooch, at right angles to the direction of the pin clasp, is a loop for hanging or storage, of which only debris remains. The reverse side is otherwise plain.