File:Early Medieval great square-headed brooch (FindID 406909).jpg

English: A cast copper-alloy and gilded headplate and upper bow of a great square-headed brooch of the early Anglo-Saxon period, 6th century, containing a blue glass setting.

The headplate is largely complete, with a small inner panel, a second panel, and an outer frame. The base of the upper bow connects to the lower edge of the inner panel. The bow has a broad, undecorated central ridge and undecorated side ridges. The central ridge is flanked on either side by three narrow ridges running vertically. Corrosion obscures detail of these narrow ridges, but the central ridge may be composed of alternating beaded and unbeaded lengths, a motif also seen in the outer frame of the headplate.

The inner panel is positioned immediately above the bow. At the top of the central ridge of the bow is a raised circular setting containing bright blue glass. Flanking the circular setting and positioned over the narrow ridges of the bow are two swastikas set in square frames. The arms of the swastikas are curvilinear rather than geometric. The second headplate panel consists of two L-shaped panels defined by narrow ridges, each with a loose (rather than compact) Style I animal in profile. The panels are similar in execution, but the animals are not mirror images of each other. The panels are separated at the top by a vertical ridge of six small beads/pellets, and the lower ridges of the panels are curved.

The headplate frame is defined by a broad, flat ridge along the outer edges and internally, separating the frame from the second panels, and runs around three sides of the headplate. Within the broad, flat ridges that define the frame is an enclosed panel filled with a ridge of alternating beaded and unbeaded lengths set between two narrow, unbroken ridges. This motif is similar to the narrow ridges of the bow, but in the case of the frame the panel filled with the beaded/unbeaded ridge is entirely circumscribed by the unbroken ridges. The panel thus consists of 4 groups of two narrow ridges enclosing the alternating ridges - one along each side of the headplate and two across the width at the top of the headplate. These groups are separated by pairs of crescentic ridges facing each other, one pair at each upper corner of the frame and one in the centre of the frame at the top. The surface retains traces of gilding, mostly on the frame, but also in smaller quantities on some of the raised surfaces of the second panels.

The reverse of the headplate retains the D-shaped projecting hinge lugs and the base of the iron hinge pin, corroded in place. There is no evidence for mineralized fabric.

One corner of the headplate has suffered minor damage, and the break across the bow is much abraded.

The combined elements of the headplate, particularly the single glass setting in the central panel, do not fit comfortably within any of Hines's Groups (Hines 1997). Groups I and VIII have L-shaped panels with Style I animals, and there is an example of a swastika in an inner panel, but the outer frames of these groups do not particularly match. Group IV has circular settings on the head, but in pairs. The two brooches of Group XIV have similar simple frames to the headplate, but a single U-shaped Style I panel.