Iron Patch
Gold Member
- Sep 28, 2007
- 19,254
- 8,730
- π₯ Banner finds
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Good way to celebrate 20 years in the hobby.
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One of the best decorated examples of a Trade Brooch I have seen posted.
I only have experience in the Medieval versions. So in a period when we had stopped using them, you have to wonder what the manufacturers were thinking. Harking back to old designs & creating something that they may have thought suited a 'primitive' race. I have no idea really, just trying to get into their minds....Interesting & like you stated, I also have no reference to date it from??
Amazing find Iron Patch! That's an absolute stunner. I see the Deus is treating you well.
I haven't logged on in ages, but I had to do so in order to say... BANNER!
Steller finds, crazy awesome and Banner worthy as already mentioned. Those would be center pieces for most people's collections. congrats and way to wade thru the lead (for people like me, it is aluminum, trash iron and other junk more than it is lead.)
This style of brooch was at it's height of fashion in the 13th C.Quite a few people have thought it looks much earlier than the fur trade period, and I've yet to see a small trade silver ring brooch that was decorated in anyway, never-mind similar to this one. Finding something that old here would be pretty rare here, but so are any type of trade silver item. You may remember several years back you ID'd a English penny found by a friend of mine as being 13th century, so it can happen. By coincidence that was dug not too far up the road from where I found the brooch. Either way is fine to me, just curious to know what period it's from. Or like IH and I discussed while out the last time, maybe it could be both, and older brooch that stuck around and got mixed in with the fur trade silver.
This style of brooch was at it's height of fashion in the 13th C.
Here are a few silver examples from the UK:
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/868428
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/942859
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/896128
https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/878987
The first thing I noticed about your example was the perfectly hand punched circular patterns & the very straight incised lines. All the Medieval examples I have seen have been much cruder incised decorating only. I'm not aware of punched decoration being used until much later, but if it were another Country or just something a little freakish then I guess it needs further research. (but my gut is that its a later copy using newer techniques)
Yeap, the ring design itself in the UK goes back 2000+ years but the punched technique that almost looks machine done doesn't.Good point. The circles seem to be an oddity and this brings the conversation full circle back to where Aureus and I were, that the only thing that seems to have similar circle designs is some brass trade rings. On one hand it's just a design and maybe just a coincidence, but when you take the different technique and period into the argument I think it does group them together a little more.
Yeap, the ring design itself in the UK goes back 2000+ years but the punched technique that almost looks machine done doesn't.
Just a figure of speak, you can tell it's hand done & that they were right handed.Looks too sloppy to be a machine. I would think it's a hand punch.