Context (Analysis)
Brooch has been drilled on reverse of bow for metal analysis. Date of drilling and analysis results are unknown.
Event Date
Author: Lily Stancliffe

Description (Physical description)
Bronze gilt square headed brooch with rectangular headplate with Style I? ornament. Low bow with knob. Animal heads above lappets. Diamond above face pattern on foot. T-shaped foot (one side broken off)
Event Date 1888
Author: maa

Context (Field collection)
Grave VII
From the Anglo Saxon cemetery. Excavated by Baron Anatole von Hügel and Walter Kidman Foster, February to April 1888.
Event Date 1888
Author: maa

Context (Analysis)
Identified by E.T. Leeds as his 'Haslingfield type' (A3).
Event Date 1949
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (References)
Leeds, E.T. (1949). A Corpus of Early Anglo-Saxon Great Square-headed Brooches. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 24-25. (Illustrated, no. 20)
Event Date 1949
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (References)
Kennett, David H. (1971). 'Notes: I. Applied Brooches of the Kempston Type at St John's, Cambridge'. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, vol. 63. pp. 27-29, Pl. I
Event Date 1971
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Context (Analysis)
Although von Hügel expressed the hope to publish a detailed account of his excavation, no publication was produced and the Annual Report entry is the sole known recording of grave groups. The catalogue cards for 1888.30.105-112, retrospectively created at an unknown date, suggest that they form a possible grave group. This appears to tally with a photograph of them as a grave group (see Kennet 1971). This is most likely to be Grave VII, recorded by von Hügel as being a woman's grave, and containing: 'a finely worked broad cross-shaped brooch, gilt; two large discs, with traces of thin gold plates; two pairs of gilt clasps, and a number of large amber beads'. von Hügel does not mention the ring, latch lifter or knife but, by his own admission, he gives only a 'rough inventory of the most remarkable 'finds''. The grave number has therefore been added to the Field Collection entry.
Event Date 19/01/2021
Author: Imogen Gunn (admin)

Description (Physical description)
Gilt copper alloy square headed brooch. The headplate is decorated with concentric rectangular panels. The middle frame is decorated with style 1 zoomorphic ornament. The top right corner is decorated with a protruding masked bird's head, left missing. Low-arched bow with central circular boss and with a central longitudinal ridge. The lappets extend from the flat panel immediately beneath the bow and are moulded in the form of helmeted beasts with open jaws. The foot is lozenge-shaped with protruding lobes in the form of masked human profiles and flat wings which may originally have been plated in silver. Human mask terminal with curved brows, protruding eyes and curling moustache; geometric, possibly originally silvered lip. Double pin-bar lugs and catchplate present on reverse.
Event Date 8/8/2024
Author: Lily Stancliffe