Annular brooch

Description

More substantially made annular brooches would be used for securing clothing. However the slightly fragile nature of this example suggests a purely decorative use. The legend, in Lombardic letters, is partly illiterate and the word Invan cannot be fully interpreted. Badges such as this, although probably not pilgrims badges as such, would have been worn as a means of invoking the protection of a saint, or, in this case, the Virgin Mary.
Original found in London.