Byzantine
500 to 600 AD
Silver and enamel
Diameter 1 3/4 inches (4.4 cm)
Provenance: San Jose, California trade
The brooch is built on a disc from which four arms project at the quarters, each arm swelling into a bird head with a heavy hooked beak curving back on itself. The disc is divided into a central roundel and a ring of radiating cells, all filled with enamel in a deep red purple, and the same color runs into the crown and eye of each head with white enamel set against it in the crescent of the beak. The metal walls between the cells are left proud of the enamel throughout, so the silver reads as a drawn line holding the color in place.
A fibula fastened a cloak or garment at the shoulder, the pin and catch worked on the reverse, and it functioned as a display of status as much as a piece of dress. Disc brooches with projecting heads belong to a broad family produced across the late antique and early Byzantine world, in which the eagle carried associations with imperial authority. Enameled examples are considerably less common than plain cast silver ones, since the technique required cells to be cut or built and fired with colored glass.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Byzantine
500 to 600 AD
Silver and enamel
Diameter 1 3/4 inches (4.4 cm)
Provenance: San Jose, California trade
The brooch is built on a disc from which four arms project at the quarters, each arm swelling into a bird head with a heavy hooked beak curving back on itself. The disc is divided into a central roundel and a ring of radiating cells, all filled with enamel in a deep red purple, and the same color runs into the crown and eye of each head with white enamel set against it in the crescent of the beak. The metal walls between the cells are left proud of the enamel throughout, so the silver reads as a drawn line holding the color in place.
A fibula fastened a cloak or garment at the shoulder, the pin and catch worked on the reverse, and it functioned as a display of status as much as a piece of dress. Disc brooches with projecting heads belong to a broad family produced across the late antique and early Byzantine world, in which the eagle carried associations with imperial authority. Enameled examples are considerably less common than plain cast silver ones, since the technique required cells to be cut or built and fired with colored glass.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
