Copper-alloy, 51.70 grams, 134.5 mm. 6th century AD. An elaborate great square-headed brooch of Hines's Group XIII. The trapezoidal headplate is divided into three fields. At the centre above the bow is a plain rectangular raised panel with bevelled edges surrounded by a narrow border with punched pellet decoration. Outside this is a field of sinuous meander patterning within a simple raised border. Around this is a field of billeted bands with rectangles in the upper corners, decorated with punched pellets; this field is pierced by a series of round apertures in imitation of the openwork type of headplate. The outer border is decorated with punched pellets along the lower, lateral and upper edges; around the rectangular corner panels the punchmarks are formed as roundels with a bifurcated extension. The shallow bow features substantial median and lateral ribs extending to two curved animal-head upper extensions above a cruciform footplate. The median rib bears punched pellet detailing, separating two symmetrical sub-triangular elements with Style I animal decoration, outside wich are plain pear-shaped panels. There are four circular piercings in the animal-head details. A pelleted frame extends from the lower jaw of the animal heads to surround the sub-triangular and pear-shaped panels and the discoid finial lobe. A broad transverse bar separates the lower lobe from the rest of the footplate. The heavy gilding is substantially present across a large part of the surface. The catchplate is fixed to a strengthening rib on the reverse, and the spring-lugs are present with the partial remains of the iron pin still in place. References: Hines, J. A New Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed Brooches, London, 1997 p.103ff and pl.43b; cf. Neville, R.C. Saxon Obsequies Illustrated by Ornaments and Weapons Discovered by the Hon. R.C. Neville in a Cemetery Near Little Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire During the Autumn of 1851, London, 1852, pl.10 no.158. Published: Hammond, Brett. British Artefacts, volume I - Early Anglo-Saxon. Some repair but overall in beautiful condition. Provenance: from an old 19th century collection, found Cambridgeshire. This lot is accompanied by an XRF ancient metal test certificate from Oxford X-ray Fluorescence Ltd.