The Hunterston Brooch and its Significance

LIKE SO MANY OTHER ‘well-known’ objects the Hunterston brooch has lacked the detailed description and illustration necessary for its evaluation. Besides providing basic information, this article discusses features of its technique and design as evidence of how the ‘Hiberno-Saxon’ amalgam of 7th and 8th-century art styles developed. It suggests that the Hunterston brooch is stylistically the earliest known of the inlaid and gilded ‘Tara’ type, and that its revolutionary design resulted from some Anglo-Saxon artist-craftsman working for a patron who wore ‘Celtic’ brooches of quite plain silver; further that a cross was important in the scheme of the prototype, which may have included a relic.