Bagpiper Brooch

This fashionable young man, with rock star hair, clearly plays a mean bagpipe! Our delightful hollow-backed brooch is copied after a pair of examplars, both found in London, from the same mold. One was published in the (then named) London Museum’s medieval catalog of 1940 – that poor fellow is missing his head and both legs from mid-thigh down. Fortunately, a second example was found in spoil removed from the Thames Exchange site, and he lacks only one leg below the knee. If they ever find a complete example and both feet are pointing the same way, we guessed wrong.

Based on his costume, we would guess the undated original was produced in the 1390s.