Gold broooch with a pair of hands and engraved with an illegible inscription. England or France, 1300-1400.

Brooch, gold, in the form of a pair of clasped hands. Pointed oval brooch, with bifaceted arms teminating in clasped hands that once held a stone, now missing. With quatrefoil decoration at the base and at each side at the pin. Alternately decorated on inner and outer facets with beads and and engraved inscription 'LIV IV: VL VL' (Meaning unknown).

Given by Dame Joan Evans

A similar brooch was found by a metal detectorist in 2006 (Treasure ref 2006 T119) and is now in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. The Treasure Annual Report 2000 publishes a similar ring, p75, no.137, although silver and without an inscription, and notes that "More de-luxe versions of this type of brooch [such as this one, in gold] may have held a pearl within the clasped hands". It cites two other examples in the Victoria & Albert Museum published in Lightbown 'Medieval European Jewellery (1978, London) cat no.s 13 & 14, and another in the Treasure Annual Report 1998-9, no.155. An as yet unpublished silver clasped hands brooch from Sutton cum Lound, Notts is on the PAS database no. DENO-1B4283 Treasure reference number 2005 T105. A plain silver version was recorded on the Finds Database in 2018 as CAM-547060; another silver version, with the letters VI scratched upon it was recorded as WILT-181FAD; also a silver gilt brooch , reference SUR-7A5C46. All the brooches so far recorded have been around 2cm in length.

This brooch is a variant of the popular ring brooch, used to fasten layers of clothing, fix cloaks or aprons or hold small personal items such as purses and rosary beads. The two hands at the top of the brooch may be intended to symbolise prayer. They can be found in wills and inventories of the fourteenth century - the inventory of King Charles V, taken in 1380 lists 'ung fermillet d'or, de deux braz, l'un blanc et l'autre azuré, à une roze de mesmes' (a gold brooch with two arms, one white and one blue, with a rose of the same) and 'ung autre fermillet d'or azuré, à deux mains qui s'entretiennent' (another brooch of gold and blue with two hands interlaced). Some of these brooches show the hands cupped in a way which may suggest they once held a small gemstone or pearl.

M.48-1975