5th C. Visigoth Bronze Buckle, Blue Glass Inlays

Southwestern Europe / Iberian Peninsula, Spain or Portugal, Visigoths, ca. 550 to 600 CE. A striking, large bronze belt buckle, its surface decorated with over a dozen inlaid deep blue glass baubles - some hemispherical, some flat and crescent-shaped - and smaller clear glass inlays surrounding them, filling in the entire surface of the belt using the cloisonne technique. The rectangular face connects to a thick, round catchplate with a pin that curves around its center. This pin was probably once decorated with an applied plate based on similar examples. Size: 5.1" W x 2.5" H (13 cm x 6.4 cm); 3.65" H (9.3 cm) on included custom stand.

The bright colors of this buckle's decoration would have caught the eye and contrasted strongly with the original bronze metal color, creating a dramatic and very visible sign of rank for the wearer - an elite Visigothic woman, who probably had a matching large fibula decorated in a similar manner. This type of portable art is a major legacy of the Migration Period, the time after the fall of the Roman Empire. Belt buckles with rectangular attachments are found in cemeteries throughout the Iberian Peninsula - strikingly of the same form, but with a massive variety of surface decoration, perhaps reflecting personal choice on the part of their owners.

See a nearly identical example with different inlays at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466162

Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-Martin Wunsch collection, New York, USA, acquired in the 1980s

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#141442
Condition Report: Plate on the pin is lost. Many of the original inlays are lost. Pretty deep green and blue-green patina with some oxidized iron around the pin. Overall in beautiful condition with the glass well preserved and iridescence on many of the clear pieces.