
The quoit brooch is a type of
Anglo-Saxon brooch found from the 5th century and later during the
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the language and culture of most of what became England from Romano-British to Germanic. The Germanic-speakers in Britain, themselves of diverse origins, eventually develop ...
that has given its name to the Quoit Brooch Style to embrace all types of
Anglo-Saxon metalwork in the decorative style typical of the finest brooches. The brooches take their modern name from the rings thrown in the game of
quoits
Quoits ( or ) is a traditional game which involves the throwing of metal, rope or rubber rings over a set distance, usually to land over or near a spike (sometimes called a hob, mott or pin). The game of quoits encompasses several distinct vari ...
, and have the form of a broad ring, or circle with an empty centre, usually in bronze or silver (sometimes inlaid with silver or gold respectively), and often highly decorated. The forms are in a very low
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
, so contrasting with other early Anglo-Saxon styles, with detail added by shallow engraving or punching within the main shapes. Dots or dashes are often used to represent fur on the animal forms, as well as lines emphasizing parts of the body. They are fixed with a single, straight hinged pin like those of other Anglo-Saxon ring or
Celtic brooch
The Celtic brooch, more properly called the penannular brooch, and its closely related type, the pseudo-penannular brooch, are types of brooch clothes fasteners, often rather large; penannular means formed as an incomplete ring. They are especia ...
es and are further defined by the presence of a slot and pin-stops on the ring.
Origins and context
Most scholars now agree that the style developed mainly from provincial late
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
metalwork styles, apparently drawing elements from both the relatively low-status jewellery found in military graves in northern Gaul and England such as
belt buckle
The buckle or clasp is a device used for fastening two loose ends, with one end attached to it and the other held by a catch in a secure but adjustable manner. Often taken for granted, the invention of the buckle was indispensable in securing tw ...
s and fittings, and also late-Roman luxury work such as the style in one bracelet in the very late Roman
Hoxne Hoard. In the Quoit Brooch Style the very varied motifs are largely geometrical but include human face-masks and processions or confronted pairs of schematic animals. In most pieces the motifs are tightly packed together in a way lacking classical harmony, but comparable to later Anglo-Saxon work. The style has also been related to late-Roman ring styles in finds such as the
Thetford Hoard
The Thetford Hoard (also known as the Thetford Treasure) is a hoard of Romano-British metalwork found by Arthur and Greta Brooks at Gallows Hill, near Thetford in Norfolk, England, in November 1979, and now in the British Museum. Dating from t ...
.
In late Roman Gaul and Britain ''cingula'' or belts decorated with metal fittings were worn as signs of rank by both soldiers and civilian officials. One theory is that the style was produced by goldsmiths trained in late Roman provincial traditions working for Germanic clients, certainly after and perhaps also before the departure of the Roman legions and the
end of Roman rule in Britain
The end of Roman rule in Britain was the transition from Roman Britain to Sub-Roman Britain, post-Roman Britain. Roman rule ended in different parts of Britain at different times, and under different circumstances.
In 383, the usurper Magnus ...
in 410 or thereabouts. The style and forms are very different from contemporary continental Germanic ones, and the contexts of the various finds seem to allow for both the possibilities that Germanic owners were adopting some Romano-British cultural habits, and that Romano-British owners of objects were adopting partially Anglo-Saxon ones in the first years of the
Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the language and culture of most of what became England from Romano-British to Germanic. The Germanic-speakers in Britain, themselves of diverse origins, eventually develop ...
.
The discovery of an increasing number of important products of the Quoit Brooch ″school″ in northern France, however, shows that neither the style, nor the forms of jewellery are purely insular developments and that they cannot be linked with any particular ethnic group. An alternative theory has therefore been advanced that they are associated with broadly Germanic, mercenary or federate forces employed in the defence of both southern Britain and northern Gaul in the 5th century, who identified themselves and their status by the creation of innovative metalwork in late Roman tradition.
Finds
The Sarre Brooch, found in the
Sarre Anglo-Saxon cemetery
Sarre Anglo-Saxon cemetery is a place of burial that was used in the sixth and seventh centuries CE.
Background
With the advent of the Anglo-Saxon period in the fifth century CE, the area that became Kent underwent a radical transformation on a ...
at
Sarre, Kent
Sarre is a village and civil parish in Thanet District in Kent, England. The village is a part of St. Nicholas-at-Wade ecclesiastical parish, after having lost the local church of St. Giles in Elizabethan times; the ecclesiastical parishes wer ...
in 1863,
and now in the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...
is the best-known example, in a very good state of preservation. It was described by
Gale Owen-Crocker
Gale Owen-Crocker (born 16 January 1947) is a Professor Emerita of the University of Manchester, England. Before her retirement she was Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies.
Early life and ...
as the "most magnificent example" of the Quoit brooch style. Two three-dimensional doves sit on the flat circle of the brooch, and another on the head of the pin. In silver with the two zones of animal ornament
gilded
Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was trad ...
, it is 7.71 cm across. It was bought by the British Museum in 1893, having once been in the museum of Henry Durden of
Blandford
Blandford Forum ( ), commonly Blandford, is a market town in Dorset, England, sited by the River Stour about northwest of Poole. It was the administrative headquarters of North Dorset District until April 2019, when this was abolished and ...
. This and a brooch from Howletts, Grave 13 are so similar that they are thought to be from the same workshop, if not the same artist, although several workshops are thought to have worked in the Quoit Brooch Style.
The brooches, the belt-fittings and the style, are mainly found in high-status burials in southern-eastern England, south of the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...
, and right across northern France, dating from the middle quarters of the 5th century. The British Museum also has a fragment of a brooch similar to the Sarre one from Howletts, Kent, and several belt-fittings in the style from the Anglo-Saxon
cemetery at Mucking in
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
, as well as pieces excavated at
Chessell Down
Chessell is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight, England, towards the west in an area known as the Back of the Wight on the B3401 road. Public transport used to be provided by Southern Vectis
Southern Vectis is a bus operator on the Isle of Wigh ...
on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...
and Howletts in Kent. The brooch shape survived beyond that, but in a much plainer style.
Given its limited range in time and place, the style is rare, and one survey in 2000 identified only 5 round brooches (counting style of decoration rather than shape) and a maximum of 39 objects in the style, though the total must be revised upwards in light of the French evidence and in the same year Peter Inker described and illustrated 7 round brooches. One significant addition to the corpus was found near
Winchester in 2013 and registered by the
Portable Antiquities Scheme
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme begun in 1997 and now covers m ...
. This was a "large fragment of a 5th century copper alloy scabbard mount with silver inlay" with a crouching animal, and part of its confronted partner, projecting above a zone with geometric rosettes to form the upper edge of the scabbard.
Debate
The style was identified in the 20th century and initially provoked much debate as to its origins. It is often connected with the
Jutes
The Jutes (), Iuti, or Iutæ ( da, Jyder, non, Jótar, ang, Ēotas) were one of the Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after the departure of the Romans. According to Bede, they were one of the three most powerful Germanic nation ...
, who
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...
said settled in the core area of the finds, and "barbarian" continental influences, Germanic and
Frankish are often also seen in the style, which has also been called "Jutish Style A" by
Sonia Hawkes
Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, (5 November 1933 – 30 May 1999) was a leading specialist in early Anglo-Saxon archaeology, described as a "discerning systematiser of the great array of Anglo-Saxon grave furnishings". She led major excavations on Anglo ...
.
[Owen-Crocker, 1402; Smith]
Notes
References
*Ager, Barry M., ″The smaller variants of the Anglo-Saxon quoit brooch″, ''Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History'' Vol. 4, 1985, pp. 1–58
*Ager, Barry M., ″A note on the objects decorated in the Quoit Brooch Style from the burials at Saint-Marcel″, pp. 240–242 in F. Le Boulanger and L. Simon, ″De la ferme antique à la nécropole de l′Antiquité tardive (milieu du IIe s. – fin du Ve s. apr. J.-C.). Étude archéologique du site de Saint-Marcel «le Bourg» (Morbihan)′, ''Gallia'', Vol. 69.1, 2012, pp. 167–307
*Böhme, Horst W., ″Das Ende der Römerherrschaft in Britannien und die angelsächsische Besiedlung Englands im 5. Jahrhundert″, ''Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz'', Vol. 33, 1986, pp. 469–574
*Inker, Peter, "Technology as Active Material Culture: The Quoit-brooch style", ''Medieval Archaeology'' Vol. 44, 2000, pp. 25–5
PDF with good drawings of most objects in the style
*
Owen-Crocker, Gale R., review of ''The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon Settlement: A Casting and Recasting of Cultural Identity Symbols'' by Seiichi Suzuki, ''Speculum'', Vol. 77, No. 4 (Oct., 2002), pp. 1401–1403, Medieval Academy of America, Article DOI: 10.2307/3301310
JSTOR*Russell, Miles and Laycock, Stuart, ''UnRoman Britain. Exposing the great myth of Britannia'', 2010, The History Press, Stroud
*
Smith, Reginald A., "Jutish Finds in Kent", ''The British Museum Quarterly'', Vol. 10, No. 3 (Mar., 1936), pp. 131–132, DOI: 10.2307/4421850
JSTOR*Soulat, Jean (2nd ed.), ″Le Matériel Arquéologique de type Saxon et Anglo-Saxon en Gaule Mérovingienne″, Mémoires de l'Association Française d′Archéologie Mérovingienne, Vol. 20, 2012,
*Suzuki, Seiichi, ''The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon England'', 2000, Boydell Press, Woodbridge,
*
Webster, Leslie, ''Anglo-Saxon Art'', 2012, British Museum Press,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quoit (Brooch)
Brooches
Anglo-Saxon art
5th century in England