The Red Brooch

Plate brooches with fantails, like the one we see here, were used between the 1st – 3rd  century AD. They were commonly donned in pairs, linked with a chain, to fasten a cloak.

When it arrived at AOC, this Romano-British brooch showed only a hint of its former glory. However our conservators recognised that the thin layer of dirt could potentially be concealing a real hidden beauty. Even though it might look like the dirt can simply be brushed off or swabbed away with solvents, the centuries spent degrading underground, made it strongly bonded to the object.

Before conservation.

After conservation.

One could scrub it off mechanically, but this might damage or even remove some of the crumbly enamel underneath. Therefore our conservator Simeon used a combination of soft glass bristle brushes and solvent swabs to very gently and slowly remove the dirt without losing any of the enamel. The cleaning revealed a vibrant red colour, a well-defined rim of darker enamel and even a tiny dot yellow enamel. It also helped better show and define the construction and other features of the brooch. 

The central plate before conservation.

The central plate after conservation.

The fantail before conservation.

The fantail after conservation.