Enamelled Brooch from St Ebbe’s, Oxford: 15th century

The fancy little brooch is of gilded copper alloy, and is decorated with blue, yellow and white enamel; it was found in St Ebbe’s, the main Medieval tenement quarter of central Oxford. Brooches were very popular decorative items on female (and male) clothing from late Medieval times onwards; Tudor portraits sometimes show sitters with clothes and headgear covered in a variety of little jewelled or decorative brooches.