File:Roman zoomorphic plate brooch (FindID 464956).jpg

English: An incomplete cast copper-alloy Roman zoomorphic plate brooch in the form of a swimming duck. It is missing part of the catchplate and the pin due to old breaks. The plate, representing the body of the duck, is oval shaped in form, tapering towards one end where there is an integrally cast, projecting hook-shaped tail. At the opposite, wider end is an integrally cast neck that is cylindrical in form and projects from the plate. This curves forwards to a rounded head and flattened oval shaped beak. On the front face of the plate there is enamelled decoration comprising two central elongated oval shaped recesses fields running from the base of the neck to the tail, flanked by triangular recessed fields that resemble the wings of the duck. The central fields contain the remains of red enamel, while the triangular fields have traces of enamel that has discoloured to a pale green. The back face of the plate has an integrally cast single semi-circular pin lug with circular aperture at the tail end, and corresponding integrally cast semi-circular catchplate at the head end. This brooch measures 30.65mm in length, 12.42mm in width, 14.98mm in height, 2.43mm in thickness and weighs 2.58g.

This brooch belongs to a group of zoomorphic Roman brooches in the shape of stylised ducks. Close parallels to this example are found in Hattatt (2000: pp. 360, fig. 219, nos. 1168-1170) and on the PAS database (e.g. BUC-2502F0, BH-12BA82, NMS-007A94 and SF-1E8367). These indicate a date in the 2nd century AD for the current example.