6th century AD. A silver plate brooch with domed body and four radiating profile bird-heads; the plate dished to the reverse, the obverse set with eight wedge-shaped garnet cloisons surrounding a central disc; each bird-head with a large discoid garnet cloison eye and separate hooked beak and neck; old inked collector's reference 'MS/139' to the reverse. Cf. Menghin, W., The Merovingian Period. Europe Without Borders, Berlin, 2007, item V3.10.2, for a similar example.10.47 grams, 37mm (1 1/2"). From an important private Dutch collection; formerly in the collection of Dr. Hanns-Ulrich Haedeke (1928-2017), author of ‘Schmuck Aus Drei Jahrtausenden’ and who became the director of the Museum of Klingenmuseum in Solingen, Germany, in 1968; the collection was formed in the early 1960s; accompanied by an independent specialist report and valuation by graduate gemmologist and jewellery expert Anna Rogers, GIA GG, BA, Gem-A, ref. no.169957/07/12/2020; this lot has also been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no. 10448-169957.