Open-Ring Brooch in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, April 2011

Open Ring Brooch, early 800s
Pictish or Irish; Found near Galway, Ireland
Silver with amber insets
Diam. 2 3/8 in. (6 cm), L. (pin) 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm)
Purchase, Rogers Fund, and Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, by exchange, 1981 (1981.413)

Iron Age Celts of Britain were the first to develop the open ring brooch, a type that would remain widespread in Great Britain and Ireland through the early Middle Ages. Each terminal of this example in silver is decorated with three stylized masks in the form of birds' or bats' heads, enframing a polished amber.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1981.413