Casgliadau Arlein

A damaged three dimension Duck brooch. The end of the bird's wings are missing and, with them, the pin mechanism. The brooch is plain save for an incised line, defining a narrow margin round the base, and two lines of incised zig zag ornament diverging from behind the head along the back of the body. The top of the head is pinched up sharply to form the head and beak. A similar brooch was found in a late second century grave at Colchester and another comes from Caerwent but the plain form, as exemplified by these and the Usk brooch, is thought to be rare. The enamalled cockerel brooch is the most numerous of the hollow three dimensional bird brooches manufactuered in Britain in the second century, only about half as many duck brooches of enamelled hollow three dimensional form being recorded. It is noteworthy that a plain version of the hollow three dimensional cockerel type, from Mere, in Wiltshire, is also knwon. It and the plain duck form perhaps represent variants of the main enamelled hollow threee dimesnional series. Whether these are typologically early or late awaits the discovery of more dated examples, though the deposition of the Colchester and Usk brooches suggests that they, at any rate, are not early in the series.