File:Medieval annular brooch with details of lettering (FindID 646688).jpg

English: A medieval gold annular brooch dating to the 13th or 14th century. This brooch is circular in shape with two clasped hands projecting from the frame. There is a double band of chevron ridges at the junction between the projecting hands and the frame. The hands have an oval gap between them and there is a white coating, possibly an adhesive, between them.

There is a constriction to accommodate the pin 90 degrees apart from the clasped hands; if the hands project at 6 o'clock, the constriction is at 3 o'clock. The gold pin is present and is decorated with a double band of ridges at the junction between the shaft and the attachment loop; the shaft has a trapezoidal cross-section.

The frame has a triangular cross-section and is decorated with an inscription and two quatrefoil motifs. One of these motifs is situated where the tip of the pin rests on the frame (at 9 o'clock) and the other is at 12 o'clock.

The inscription is inscribed on both of the faces of the angled front surface. The outer face reads, clockwise from the projecting clasped hands, AV EM AR IA. The letters take the outer edge of the brooch as their base line, so read backwards; they are also written backwards (retrograde) although this can only be seen in the asymmetric letters, the round-backed E and the R. The inner face reads, again clockwise from the clasped hands, GR AC IA PL. The G is unusually shaped and the top of the first A cannot be seen, making it look like an M. The I looks more like a star. The lower stroke of the P also cannot be seen and the L appears to be turned through 90 degrees, making it hard to read.

The entire inscription, however, is clearly Ave Maria Gracia Plena, or Hail Mary Full of Grace.

Dimensions: length: 22.77mm; thickness of clasped hands: 3.55mm; thickness of frame: 0.82mm; diameter: 15.14mm; weight: 1.18g.

Similar gold brooches with clasped hands and inscriptions are recorded on the database, KENT-984E65, DENO-1AF752, LVPL-83D8B4 and LIN-9A4B26, all of which have similar clasped hands whose nature suggests that they may have once held a pearl or a gem which has been lost on all these examples. The inscriptions on these brooches are not currently decipherable. Comparable brooches in public collections include one in the British Museum (1849,0301.33) dated to the late 13th or 14th century, and two further examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum, published in Lightbown (1998, catalogue numbers 13 and 14); this dates these brooches to the mid-14th century in England and the 14th century in France.