The Fuller Brooch is an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

silver and

niello Niello is a black mixture, usually of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. It is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts or at least softens, and flows or is push ...

brooch dated to the late 9th century, which is now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, where it is normally on display in Room 41. The elegance of the engraved decoration depicting the Five Senses, highlighted by being filled with

, makes it one of the most highly regarded pieces of

Anglo-Saxon art Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period art, Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, ...

Description

The brooch is a large disc made of hammered sheet

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

inlaid with black

and with a diameter of . Its centre roundel is decorated with personifications of the five senses. In the centre is Sight with large staring oval

eyes An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

, surrounded by the other four senses, each in his own compartment. Taste is in the upper left, Smell is in the upper right, Touch is in the lower right, and Hearing is in the lower left.

Taste The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste. Taste is the perception stimulated when a substance in the mouth biochemistry, reacts chemically with taste receptor cells l ...

has a hand in his mouth. Smell's hands are behind his back, and he stands between two tall plants.

Touch The somatosensory system, or somatic sensory system is a subset of the sensory nervous system. The main functions of the somatosensory system are the perception of external stimuli, the perception of internal stimuli, and the regulation of bo ...

rubs his hands together.

Hearing Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is auditory sci ...

holds his hand to his ear. This is the earliest known representation of the five senses. The outer border consists of 16 small medallions decorated with human, bird, animal and plant motifs.

Style and materials

Stylistically it is "in a very late version of the Trewhiddle style". After the discovery of the

Strickland Brooch The Strickland Brooch is an Anglo-Saxon art, Anglo-Saxon silver and niello disc brooch dated to the mid 9th century, now in the British Museum. Although its exact provenance is unknown, it is regarded by scholars as a rare and important example o ...

, one of the closest parallels to the Fuller Brooch, also 9th century and in the British Museum, additional research determined that the niello used in the Fuller Brooch was mainly silver sulphide, a type that went out of use later in the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

period, in itself an argument against it being a modern forgery. The niello technique may indicate that the brooch was made by metalworkers of King Alfred the Great's court.

History of ownership

The brooch has survived in excellent condition, although the pin and its attachments have been removed, and the top of the brooch has been perforated for suspension, and it may be the only surviving piece of secular Anglo-Saxon metalwork to remain unburied since its creation. It was thought to be a

fake Fake or fakes may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * The Fake (1927 film), ''The Fake'' (1927 film), a silent British drama film * The Fake (1953 film), ''The Fake'' (1953 film), a British film * Fake (2003 film), ''Fake'' (20 ...

by Sir Charles Hercules Read, Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum, because of its excellent condition. He advised the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

in Oxford which had been lent the brooch, to take it off display. It was then bought by Captain A. W. F. Fuller for the price of the silver. In 1952 Capt. Fuller donated the brooch to the British Museum on the condition that it henceforth be called the Fuller Brooch.British Museum Collection
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References

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External links

The Fuller Brooch
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The British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Anglo-Saxon art Individual brooches Medieval European metalwork objects Medieval European objects in the British Museum Silver objects 9th-century artifacts