File:Medieval , Ring brooch (FindID 141667).jpg

English: A Medieval silver annular object, originally recorded as a brooch but now thought to be a vervel of washer or annular ring type. It is circular in shape (14mm diameter) and miniature in scale,consisting of a flattened hoop, inscribed on one face. The brooch is distorted and has come apart at the point at which the inscription begins. The inscription reads: X: OF ./. FOVRLE in neat seriffed capital letters, with the first X and colon not clearly legible. The reverse is undecorated.

FOVRLE seems likely to be a place-name, but it is now uncertain where this was. Firle is a neighbouring parish to the findspot, but early forms tend to Ferle rather than Fourle. Fordley in Suffolk is Forle in the Domesday Book, but is a long distance from the findspot.

The closest parallel to this item on the PAS database is perhaps NMS-092867, an annular vervel which is inscribed with a personal name in seriffed capitals and can be linked to two people alive in the first half of the 17th century. Other similarly shaped silver vervels such as GLO-21058E, BH-64FD13, DUR-A20CB7, PAS-B05027, WMID-16CD27, HESH-C74F57, DUR-756E12 and SWYOR-9CBF24 are engraved on one face, normally in lower-case lettering, and again are mainly dated to the first half of the 17th century by association with named individuals. WMID-1738A6 is an exception, having been assigned a 15th-century date from its lettering.

NMS-236202, NMS-2AE576, NARC-C41B23, ESS-728703, BH-0FB1A8 and PUBLIC-AD2F70 are inscribed on the external face of a cylindrical ring (the latter four in lower-case lettering), but show that an inscription consisting of a place-name alone is sufficient for a vervel. It may be that vervels were worn in pairs, one with the owner's name, the other with an address.