Casgliadau Arlein

Silver crossbow brooch, complete and well preserved with little sign of corrosion, apart from the pin, which is of copper alloy and only survives as badly corroded fragments. The knob at the head is quasi-onion shape rising from a double ridged collar. The arms are a hexagonal tube that houses a copper alloy axial bar for the pin, which was hinged. At each end there is a knob, the same as that at the head of the brooch. The bow is narrow and undecorated apart from at the junction of the bow with the foot, where a length of silver wire is coiled round the bow four times. The foot is tubular and slightly tapered. The front of the foot has a flat central face with a chamfer on either side. At the top and the bottom, the face has been left square and is decorated by transverse grooves. There is a tapering slot for the pin on one side of the foot.