S-Shaped Fibula

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Artist
Name	Unknown
Basic Info
Alternative Title	Double Bird Brooch
Period	Late Antique period
Created in	Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Britain (Britannia)
Century	5th-6th century
Culture	Anglo-Saxon
Dimensions	1.7 x 2.7 x 0.2 cm (11/16 x 1 1/16 x 1/16 in.)
Harvard Museum
Department	Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics
Division	Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact	am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Context

This S-shaped brooch terminates at each end in a stylized bird head curving back toward its body (1). Each head is shown in profile, consisting of a circular profile eye, with iris and pupil indicated, and a curved beak with a deep central depression. The curving body of the brooch is filled with short horizontal lines surrounded by double raised lines. A loop and hinge are present on the back, although the pin is lost.
 
NOTES:
 
1. Compare T. Brisco, “The Anglo-Saxon S-Shaped Brooch in England with Special Reference to One from Lakenheath, Suffolk,” Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 61 (1968): 45-53, esp. 46 and 51, fig. 1.f; and R. Hattatt, Brooches of Antiquity: A Third Selection of Brooches from the Author’s Collection (Oxford, 1987) 323-24, no. 1318, fig. 105.
 
Lisa M. Anderson

TechnicalDetails

Chemical Composition

Technical Observations

The patina is a patchwork of green, cupritic red, and black. The body of the brooch appears to have been cast in one piece with the catchplate and the hinge loop on the reverse. The pin is now missing, but the rusty remains that have built up around the hinge loop indicate that it was iron. The surface of the brooch has been extensively mechanically cleaned, carving through the green and cupritic corrosion accretions and making it difficult to determine the exact nature of the original modeling and cold working. The two openings below the beaks of the stylized bird heads were created in the wax model rather than in the metal. 
 
Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2012)

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Purchase through the generosity of Mrs. Waltrud Lampé