6th century AD. A matched pair of bronze saucer brooches, each a disc with flared rim, catch and pin-lug to the reverse, central silvered stud securing a disc of sheet gilt-bronze with repoussé ornament of four radiating human masks within a band of Style I zoomorphs and pellets to the border. Cf. MacGregor, A. & Bolick, E. A Summary Catalogue of the Anglo-Saxon Collections (Non-Ferrous Metals), Oxford, 1993, item 1.6-7, 12. 58 grams total, 57-58mm (2 1/4"). From the property of an Essex gentleman; previously acquired from a Welsh collector in 2010; found Midlands, UK. The repoussé panel bears striking facing masks and a band of Style I ornament, remarkably similar to three brooches in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England. One such brooch (1.6 in the catalogue) was recovered from excavations at Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire and a second (1.12) from Hauxton nearby, while the third (1.7) was found at the Barrington 'A' cemetery, Malton, also Cambridgeshire. All three were in the collection of Sir John Evans and were presented to the museum by his son, Sir Arthur Evans, in 1909. Both Evans's were noted archaeologists of their day, John being particularly associated with the excavations at Hallstatt, Austria, and Arthur with the the site of Knossos, Crete. [2]