Continental radiate-headed brooch

Gatty Slip: [...] bronze fibula, set with glass or garnets. Labelled 'Found in a grave in Kent'Silver-gilt radiate brooch, l. 8.5cm. Head with 5 double-lobed knobs, with flat garnets in larger. Fan-wise grooving inside contour frame. Bow and slightly expanding foot decorated in one with nielloed ring-and-dot ornament down centre, chip-carved zig-zag down sides. Base of foot chamfered off, dec. with punched dots. Back of head plate recessed. Wide apart pair of small pierced lobes supporting cross-bar to which a long bronze pin hinged by soldering - might be silver-gilt.Continental Type 22 after Kühn 1974. For further finds from Kent see Parfitt & Brugmann 1997, 43. The hinged pin does not seem functional and may be a 19th-century 'repair'. – B.B.