291 (29)

263

Brooches

produced brooch is the latest of the senes still holds good for this now extended corpus.

Rectangular brooch

1358    SWA81 753 (2097) 12 fig 170 Slightly distorted and damaged; 28x22mm; central four-arched openwork motif, within band of circles and dots with beaded border; three (?of an original four) bosses survive at the comers; catch for pin on reverse.

Symmetrical openwork brooch

1359    SWA81 2075 (2109) 12 fig 170 Incomplete (described as if complete); 28x27+mm; pewter (AML); eight lines radiating from a central circle and dot, with a ring of circle-and-dot motifs in the angles; a cross-hatched border gives an eight-pointed star outline, which has clusters of three circles and dots at altemate points. A fragment of a pin or a catch loop was found broken off in the same storage box. Probably non-figurative, though the eight radiating elements can be taken as arrows (cf Spencer 1980, 26 no. 119 for a badge in which arrows may ref er to the martyrdom of St Edmund).

Figurative designs

Fleurs de lis

1360    SWA81 acc. no. 1998 (context 2107) ceramic phase 12 fig 170

18x25mm; crude; fleur in cross-hatched circular border; loop below; pin missing.

1361    SWA81    1477    (2113)    12    fig 170

Incomplete; 16x23mm; fleur in circular border with ring of beading; below is part of a three-part motif with a band at the narrowed centre; tracę of pin survives.

1362    SWA81    2146    (2108)    12

Incomplete; 13.5xl6mm; similar to the preceding, but broken off below the circular border.

1363    TL74 2251 (368) 12 fig 170 16.5x23mm; fleur in similar border, but with circle-and-dot decoration.

The last example has been published (Spencer 1982, 316 no. 14 & pl 14; thirty similar brooches, practically all from different moulds, are men-tioned. Cf also Spencer 1980, 19 nos. 66-69, and Mitchiner 1986, 167-68 nos. 508 & 512-17). The fleur de lis, may, as a symbol of the Virgin, refer to any of a number of shrines, or it may be

non-specific. Some of these pinned fleurs retain various items suspended from chains from loops at the base; some pendent items - a mitred head of Thomas Becket and others with a letter T -perhaps suggest the shrine of Our Lady Under-croft at Canterbury (ibid), and MoL acc. no. 82.8/5 has a two-sided medallion with annunc-iation scenes.

Subseąuent finds respectively have a miniaturę lead-tin purse, a miniaturę set of bagpipes, and a conjoined pair of leaves (cf Spencer ibid, 322 notę 48) hanging here, for all of which, especially when considered together, it is difficult to fmd a specific religious context.

The above four fleurs are included here because the extended rangę of accompanying trinkets may mean that they were from the medieval equivalent of the modern charm bracelet, on which a crucifix can appear alongside anything from a rabbit to a motor car.

Violets

1364 SWA81 830 (2107) 12 fig 171 Incomplete; 34x30mm; grassy bank, with flower on a sinuous stem, flanked on the left by a damaged broad leaf on a stem, and on the right by another damaged stem; part of the pin and catch survive. The flower is in the round, necessitating a four-part rather than the usual three-part mould.

For the flower, cf Mitchiner 1986 (166, no. 497 -wrongly described as a Canterbury beli).

1365    SWA81    1494    (2113)    12    fig 171

Incomplete; grassy bank similar to the preceding, but with the tussocks morę individually emphasised, and with two outer stems surviving, the central one having broken completely off; a scroll at the base, with beading along the bottom, has the black-letter legend Veolit.in.ma.ye. . . .’ (last part illegible) the pin and catch are intact; pewter (AML).

1366    SWA81    1671    (2112)    12

& 1367 SWA81 2235 (2115) 12

Two round broad-leaves, probably from brooches of the same category as the preceding items (though the foliage on the trees on some badges showing the martyrdom of St Alban is quite similar - Spencer 1969,35 nos. 1 & 2). Other badges and brooches could have similar leaves.

Further incomplete brooches with this design (again from a different mould) have an additional