Mediaeval Wheel-Shaped Brooches

Abstract

The most typical form of mediaeval brooch is undoubtedly the ring brooch: found in Saxon England as early as the sixth century,1 by the beginning of the twelfth century it was almost universally worn in western Europe to fasten the dress at the neck.2 Usually the form of the ring was a simple circle, chased, inscribed, or set with jewels; but occasionally, perhaps by analogy with such star-shaped disc brooches as those of the eleventh century in the treasury of the cathedral of Mainz,3 the outer edge of the circle was adorned with radiating projections, so that it resembles a star with a circular orifice in the middle. The finest extant example of this type was in the Londesborough collection and is now in the British Museum (Fig. 2). It is probably English, but possibly French, and dates from the first half of the fourteenth century. The ring is ornamented with four jewels—cabochon emeralds and sapphires—in raised settings, alternating with hollow bosses pierced with cockatrices and dragons. These settin...