Anglo-Saxon Button Brooches

by Suzuki, Seiichi

• ISBN13: 9781843833628
• ISBN10: 184383362X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-04-20
• Publisher: Boydell Pr

Summary

The Anglo-Saxon button brooch is a small disc brooch, about 2cm in diameter and decorated with a single human face mask, found mainly in southern England and occasionally in France; although many examples survive, its origins and development are not fully understood. This book offers a comprehensive study of its typology, genealogy and chronology. It investigates formal and structural design features, proposes a prototype- and statistics-based typology, and examines the physical, conceptual and geographical dimensions of the classification. Through an in-depth description of class-internal distinctions and class-external similarities, the author also explores the development of button brooches and reconstructs their genealogy or derivational history. He then situates the evolutionary trajectory of button brooches in a temporal framework, by linking them to other brooch types such as Jutlandic relief brooches and Saxon cast saucer brooches, and by taking account of associated grave goods as appropriate. A catalogue of the entire corpus of 209 button brooches and that of related objects is provided in the appendices; there are also over 200 plates and other illustrations, enabling the details to be carefully studied. SEIICHI SUZUKI is Professor of Old Germanic Studies, Kansai Gaidai University, Japan.

Author Biography

Seiichi Suzuki is Professor of Old Germanic Studies, Kansai Gaidai University, Japan.

Table of Contents

List of plates	p. xi
List of figures	p. xviii
List of tables	p. xxii
Preface	p. xxv
Acknowledgements	p. xxix
Notes on illustrations	p. xxxi
Introduction	p. 1
Design Organisation of Button Brooches	p. 1
Overall Distribution of Button Brooches	p. 3
Typology I: Constructing a Typology and Classifying the Old Corpus	p. 8
Introduction	p. 8
Avent and Evison's (1982) System of Classification: A First Approximation	p. 9
Towards a Better Typology: Devising an Inventory of Distinctive Features	p. 13
Redefining Classes A and B: A Recursive Partitioning Method	p. 28
Reclassifying and Redefining the Old Corpus	p. 39
Typology II: Classifying New Finds, Investigating Physical Attributes, and Exploring Conceptual and Geographical Implications	p. 42
Introduction	p. 42
Classifying New Finds	p. 43
Class A1	p. 43
Class A2	p. 47
Class A3	p. 53
Class B1	p. 54
Class B2	p. 55
Class B3	p. 57
Class C	p. 59
Class D1	p. 60
Class D2	p. 60
Class E1	p. 61
Class E2	p. 62
Class F	p. 64
Class G	p. 65
Class H	p. 65
Class I2	p. 66
Class J1	p. 66
Class K	p. 68
Class L	p. 68
Reassessing Classes A and B: A Recursive Partitioning Method Reapplied	p. 68
Generalisations on Punchmark Decoration	p. 86
Series- and Class-Based Statistics	p. 88
The diameter	p. 88
The inner diameter	p. 92
The rim height	p. 95
The rim angle	p. 95
Class Identity and Pairing	p. 100
Typology and Distribution	p. 102
Class-based accounts	p. 102
Site-based accounts	p. 123
Region-based accounts	p. 130
Genealogy: The Network of Family Resemblances	p. 142
Introduction	p. 142
Determining a Class-Based Genealogy	p. 145
Class A1	p. 145
Class A2	p. 152
Class A3	p. 164
Class B1	p. 169
Class B2	p. 172
Class B3	p. 175
Class C	p. 182
Class D1	p. 183
Class D2	p. 185
Class E1	p. 186
Class E2	p. 189
Class E3	p. 190
Class F	p. 191
Class G	p. 192
Class H	p. 194
Class I1	p. 195
Class I2	p. 196
Classes J1, J2, and J3	p. 198
Class K	p. 200
Class L	p. 202
Summary	p. 204
Node Identity, Genealogical Depth, and Pairing	p. 205
Genealogy and Distribution	p. 206
The Howletts family and the Lyminge family: the major family division	p. 206
Minor families	p. 210
The genealogical depth of individual sites	p. 236
The genealogical depth of regions	p. 237
Chronology: The Interface with Other Brooch Types	p. 244
Introduction	p. 244
The Origins of Button Brooches: The Syntagmatic Axis	p. 245
Series 1 and full-face human masks on Jutlandic Group brooches	p. 245
Series 2 and profile human masks on Jutlandic Group brooches	p. 261
Series 3 and masks between animals on Jutlandic Group brooches	p. 263
Further Motivations for the Construction of Button Brooches: The Paradigmatic Axis	p. 269
The Quoit Brooch Style	p. 270
A-, B-, and C-bracteates	p. 275
The Kentish Master	p. 284
Development of Button Brooches in Kent: Parallelism to and Difference from Kentish Square-Headed Brooches	p. 287
Further Development of Button Brooches outside Kent: Integration with Cast Saucer Brooches and Independence from Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed Brooches	p. 291
Critique of Avent and Evison's Chronology of Button Brooches	p. 319
Conclusion	p. 335
Concordance of Button Brooches: Avent and Evison to Suzuki	p. 345
Concordance of Button Brooches: Suzuki to Avent and Evison	p. 349
Catalogue of Button Brooches	p. 356
Feature-Based Description of Button Brooches	p. 382
Feature-Based Description of Masks in Roundel on Other Brooches	p. 391
Bibliography	p. 395
Index of authors	p. 401
Index of objects	p. 403
Index of subjects	p. 410
Plates
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