The Anglo-Saxons inhabited Great Britain from the 5th to the 11th centuries, from the end of Roman Britain, about 450, until the Norman conquest in 1066. They made a variety of disk brooches which included both inlayed garnet and glass Cloisonné pieces as well as Cloisonné enamel brooches. During the late 10th and 11th centuries the Anglo-Saxons made a variety of rarely studied Copper-gilt disk-brooches with Cloisonné enamel centerpieces, these fell into two categories:
- the Saunderton type, with several lobes and Cloisonné enamel centerpiece
- the Colchester type, with a flange and Cloisonné enamel centerpiece
The Cloisonné enamel centerpieces have a wide variety of designs, the majority of which are geometric. The brooches are under an inch in width (< 25 mm) and usually made of a Copper alloy or Copper, most were Mercury Gilded (a.k.a. Fire-Gilding), though several have been found without any traces of gilding.
Over the following year I will be continuing my research on these rarely studied disk-brooches and will make a variety of ungilded pieces. I will be using a Copper alloy, Bronze* a.k.a. Grade "C" Phosphor Bronze (CDA#521) [8% Tin (Sn) and 92% Copper (Cu)] and Copper in sheet form, and making my own Cloisonné 'wire' from sheet.
* The Anglo-Saxons used Bronze that was on average about 10% Tin (Sn) and 90% Copper (Cu). Tin was available in Great Britain through mining, but Zinc (Zn) needed to be imported, this means that they rarely used any of the Brasses which are a Copper Alloy of Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn).
My enameling will be done using an enameling kiln and mainly Thompson lead free enamels for both the centerpieces and the cabochons set in the lobes. I will also be fabricating a piece using the Flameworking glass rods that I will process into powder to make my own enamel, see Part 2 , Part 3, and Part 4 of this blog series for my process and results.
My Facebook Photo Album of this project
