Disc-headed pin

Irish or Pictish, 5th-6th century AD

Status on show with a precious heirloom

This huge silver pin would have been used on an outer garment. Like the great medieval Irish 'handpins', the thick head is offset from a tapering shank. The disc has a pattern of three 'C' scrolls back-to-back, a motif that continued from the Iron Age Celtic tradition into the middle ages. On the shaft below the disc are panels of stamped and cast ornament delicately framed with tiny stamped circles. Red enamel once decorated all the recesses.

The use of precious metal, the size of the pin and the craftsmanship are clear statements of prestige. As a treasured heirloom, the pin has also been carefully repaired. Although it is not known where the pin was found, the use of silver and details shared with the few other disc-headed pins suggest that this pin was made in Ireland, possibly in the north. This, in turn, reflects access to silver and contact with the Pictish peoples of north-west Britain.

S.M. Youngs (ed.), The work of angels: masterpiec (London, The British Museum Press, 1989)