Medieval silver-gilt ring brooch clasped hands design

This is a nice medieval silver-gilt ring-brooch, dating to the 13th - 14th century AD. Ring-brooches are the most common type of medieval brooch to survive and had a practical function: to fasten tunics, especially at the neck. Shaped as rings, with a long central pin, these brooches varied enormously in size and could be tiny, smaller than a fingernail. Ring-brooches were made of costly gold or silver, or of much cheaper copper or pewter. They were worn mostly until the late fourteenth century when changing fashions in dress included more closely tailored clothes and the growing use of button fastenings.

This example is decorated with a pair of clasped hands in prayer, of a well-known design recorded as SF-E053D4, DENO-1AF752 and in gold LON-8B523A. The pin is missing the tip but otherwise intact and untouched excavated condition. 

OBJECT: Ring-brooch

CULTURE: Medieval

DATE: c. 1250 - 1350 AD

MATERIAL: Silver gold gilded

SIZE: 17.14mm x 12.16mm x 20.05mm (open) x 3.54mm

WEIGHT: 0.64 grams

PROVENANCE: Found in the 1980s in Hertfordshire, formerly the property of an Essex collector.