Casgliadau Arlein

Another brooch from south east England with an experimental spring mechanism. The five coil spring is secured in a recess at the rear of the head with an external chord held by a heavy rearward hook. To either side of the spring the top and bottom of the side wings are folded inwards as if to grip an axis bar to the spring, though there is no evidence here of such a bar. The bow has a marked curve at the head but is otherwise fairly straight in profile. A grooved panel with two thin ridged wavy lines in the centre ornaments the front of the bow and tapers to a point at the plain broad foot.

On each side wing is a plain outer margin, defined by a groove, and a further groove runs from a short distance from the chord hook outwards and downwards towards the margin. The catchplate, now fragmentary, was of separate manufacture, slotted into a groove in the rear of the leg.

The brooch is identical to an example from Scole, East Anglia save that the latter apparently had extensions to the ends of the side wings, folded back to close round an axis bar, rather than extensions to the top and bottom of the side wings, folded inwards, as in the Usk case. The Scole brooch also has a separately made catchplate. The Usk brooch must be a product of the same workshop as the Scole example and another brooch from the same site all sharing closely similar experimental forms of the Polden Hill spring arrangement.

In the Usk example the spring arrangement was not secure for, at some time presumably subsequent to manufacture, a fine thread was twisted round the spring and over the front of the side wings to either side of the head and even across it in front of the chord hook to secure the spring in position.

That the separately manufactured slotted in catch plate belongs to an experimental phase of the brooch manufacture is further evidenced in a brooch from South Cadbury of Dolphin form and unusual construction; in this case two ovoid plates extend laterally to mask the junction of the head of the bow with the side wings.