A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE THE ANTIQUITIES G O L D fWuseum of tfte Eopai Jrisf) BY W. R. WILDE, VICE-PBESIDENT OF THE EOYAL IRISH ACADEMY. loob (EngrsMngs. DUBLIN: . HODGES, SMITH, AND CO., GRAFTON-STEEET. LONDON: WHJJAMS & NORGATE, HENRIETTA-STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1862. DUBLIN: at ti;c Stiuticrsttij ^r BY M. H. GILL. TABLE OF CONTENTS, Page. GOLD, Introduction to, 1 Analysis of Gold, 7 The Irish Crown, 8 Lunuliv, 10 Minds, 12 Diadems, 19 Gorgets, 30 The great Clare Find, 31 Necklaces, 31 Beads, 36 Ear-rings, 37 Fillets and Hair-Bands, 38 Breast-pins and Brooches, 40 Annular Bracelets and Armillae, 45 Unclosed Rings and Armillae, 49 Ingots, 60 Armillae, 51 Mammillary Fibulae, 57 Flat-plated Fibulae, 63 Torques, 70 Waist-Torques, 72 Neck-Torques, 73 Finger-Rings, 81 Circular Plates, 82 Bracteate Medals, 83 Boxes, 84 Bullae, 85 Miscellaneous Articles, 87, 89 Ring-Money, 88 CATALOGUE THE MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. CLASS Y.METALLIC MATERIALS. ORDER V. GOLD. INTRODUCTION. ALL probability gold in Irish, Or was, for the reasons stated at page 354 of Vol. I., the metal with which the primitive inhabitants of Ireland were first acquainted. A greater number and variety of an- tique articles of gold have been found in this than in any other country in North- Western Eu- rope, from the Alps to the utmost in- habited limits of Norway, or Sweden. Records of these discoveries can be traced through all the works relating to the archaeology and history of Ireland, published during the last two hundred years, and are also preserved in the unpublished Minutes, as well as the printed Proceedings and Transactions of the Aca- demy. These antique manufactured specimens of gold for the most part consist of articles connected with personal decora- VOL. II. B 2 CATALOGUE OF THE MUSEUM. tion, such as ornaments worn on the head, diadems, tiaras, lunulae, hair-plates, and ear-rings ; those used for the neck, as, for example, gorgets, small torques, flattened beads, globular balls, and necklaces ; for the breast, as circular plates, fibulas, and brooches ; for the limbs, as armillae, bracelets, and finger- rings ; and for the chest and waist, in the form of large torques : besides various minor trinkets and miscellaneous articles, such as bullse ; small, circular boxes ; penannular-shaped articles, supposed to represent money ; bracteate medals, and some other objects of undetermined use. Of all these there are good repre- sentations in the magnificent Collection of the Academy, which at present (Jan., 1862) contains as many as three hundred spe- cimens of antique manufactured gold. These, however, are but a small portion of the gold antiquities found in Ireland, even within the past century, the great bulk of which had been melted down by jewellers, long before the institution of the Academy's Museum, about thirty-three years ago. And even during this latter period, far more articles of Irish gold have in all probability found their way to the crucible than have been anywhere preserved as objects of antiquarian or historic interest. Besides those in the Academy, there are many no- ble specimens of Irish art in the Museum of Trinity College, and in the collections of private individuals, not only in Ire- land, but also in England and Scotland ; and the majority of the gold articles illustrative of the antiquities of the British Isles, now preserved in the British Museum, are Irish. The ignorance of the finders, the fear of detection, the low antiqua- rian value heretofore attached to such articles, the want of a law of treasure-trove,* such as exists in other countries, the smallness of the fund placed at the disposal of the Academy for the purchase of'such articles, rendering it unable to purchase many valuable specimens that have been offered for sale, and * The Treasury Minute respecting " Treasure-trove" in Ireland only came into operation in April, 1861, and its effects have as yet been tested but to a very limited extent. CLASS V. METALLIC MATERIALS : GOLD INTRODUCTION. 3 the apathy and indifference with respect to the preservation of our national antiquities which have prevailed up to a very re- cent period, have all tended to promote this lamentable dis- persion, or destruction, of the golden treasures found beneatli the surface of the soil in Ireland during more than a century and a half. How much may have been discovered prior to the commencement of that period, it is now impossible to calcu- late. Unlike the weapons and implements of stone, bronze, and iron, discovered in such quantities on ancient battle-fields, or in the beds of rivers, where probably the ford was the scene of hostile strife, gold antiquities are scarcely ever found in drainage operations ; neither have they been disco- vered in any of our Crannoges, or lacustrine habitations, the antiquities of which chiefly consist of implements employed in culinary, household, and domestic use, or personal decora- tions of bone, bronze, and iron. Gold articles have, for the most part, been found deep below the surface of our bogs, a portion of the peat of which had probably grown over them, where they were dropped in flight, and remained unseen to hu- man eye, until disinterred, centuries after, by the turf-cutter ; or hidden, often in quantity, in the earth in upland districts, in the vicinity of the fort or cromlech, or hi the neighbour- hood of the battle-field. So far as the records of such disco- veries are available, it would appear that the south-western moiety of the island has yielded a greater amount of gold than the north-eastern. As yet we have but very slight authentic evidence of gold having been discovered with the remains of the dead, as so frequently occurs in other countries ; and therefore we are unable to associate the knowledge of this metal, or the use of any particular style of ornament apper- taining thereto, with cremation, or urn-burial, or any of the circumstances under which the relics of either the Pagan or the Christian dead of Ireland have been found. Scattered broad-cast over the country, yet abounding in particular dis- B 2 4 CATALOGUE OF THE MUSEUM. tricts, it would (without any exact knowledge being attain- able upon the subject) appear that these articles were dropped, or hidden in haste or fear, and possibly at a time when the foe or the invader pressed hotly upon the heels of the fugitive. The present goldsmiths and jewellers of Ireland bear tes- timony to the fact of the great quantities of antique articles of gold which have been consigned to the crucible, some esti- mate that they have purchased as much as 10,000 w T orth.* By such assays as have, from time to time, been made of antique manufactured gold found in Ireland, we learn that it is slightly below the present standard of that metal in Great Britain and Portugal, and varies from 18 to 21 carats fine; and, therefore*, its intrinsic value is a few shillings less per ounce than that of the mint or sovereign gold. In some of the very fine thin plates or lunulse, it is found to be as high as 21^ carats, but in no instance is it perfectly pure. The alloy is generally silver and a little copper, but of this the assay- master takes no special note. In the native ores of Wicklow gold is always found mixed with silver and a little copper ; and according to the analysis mentioned by Mr. Calvert, in his " Gold Rocks of Great Britain and Ireland," published in 1853, their proportions were as follows: gold, 92 oz. 32dwts.; silver, 6 oz. I7dwts. 6 grs. Mr. Weaver's assay gave 22-f, and that of Mr. Alchorn 2 1 1 carats of pure gold.j By an as- say of Wicklow gold, | recently made for the author by Mr, * Many of the circumstances relating to gold " finds" were brought under the no- tice of the Academy by the Author, on the 14th of January, 1861. f Weaver's Geological Relations of the East of Ireland, Trans. Geol. Soc., Lon- don, First Series, vol. v., p. 117, et seq. J Besides the Wicklow gold-field, there are other auriferous districts in Ireland ; for instance, the counties of Antrim, Tyrone, Derry, Dublin, Wexford, and Kildare. See the detailed account thereof in Mr. Calvert's " Gold Rocks," referred to above. There are several places in Ireland into the names of which the Irish word Or, gold, enters ; but they do not so much indicate places in which gold was found, as localities associated with other circumstances connected with that metal. Thus, Gort-an-oir^ " the field of gold," near Deargrath, in Magh Femin, derived its name from the cir- cumstance of King Lughaidh Maccon being slain there, whilst he was bestowing gold CLASS V. METALLIC MATERIALS : GOLD ASSAYS. Twycross, the Dublin assay-master, it was 1 car. 1^ grs. better than standard, or 23 carats fine, the amount of silver being in the ratio of 6| dvvts. in a pound Troy. A chemical quantita- tive analysis of another sample, made by Mr. Scott, Secretary to the Geological Society of Dublin, was as follows: gold, 89 ; silver, 8*1 ; iron, 2'1 ; and a trace of copper. From all these examinations, it would appear that the native gold of this island is either up to or above standard. These assays and analyses of ores do not, however, pre- sent greater variety as to the amount of pure gold than is found in the antique manufactured state ; but it must be re- membered, that the metal of these articles may have been used for other purposes previously, and so acquired some portions of these alloys. The ring, No. 248, in Case E, is a good ex- ample of the colour of the fine native gold of Croghan, in Wicklow. The average price given for our antique golden ar- ticles by jewellers and goldsmiths for smelting purposes varies from 65 to 70 shillings per ounce. The antiquarian value is usually 4 per ounce ; but this sum is occasionally increased, according to the rarity of the article, its amount of ornament, its state of preservation, or the peculiar circumstances under which it has been found.* By quantitative analyses made by and silver on the learned men of Erinn, A. D. 225. See Annals of the Four Masters, O'Donovan's translation. The place is now called Derrygrath, near Caher, county of Tipperary. So also Dun-an-oir, " the fort of the gold," in Kerry, and another of the same name in the Co. Cork, so called from the fact of hoards of gold having been found there. Other localities are styled golden, from the yellow colour of the clay, or from the richness of the soil, or fertility of the district. * Under the present Treasure-trove regulations, the finder of an article has only to bring it to the nearest police officer, from whom he will receive a receipt, by which the Government undertakes to return the article, if not required ; or to give, if retained, the "full value" thereof; not merely its intrinsic or bullion value, if of metal, but its full antiquarian worth, as determined by the Committee of Antiquities of the Royal Irish Academy, to which body all such articles are submitted for award by the Lord Lieutenant. The country is deeply indebted to Lord Talbot de Malahide for his valuable influ- ence and assistance in procuring the Treasury Minute, from which it is to be hoped 6 CATALOGUE OF THE MUSEUM. Mr. J. W. Mallet, and already referred to at page 359 of Vol. I., the following were the proportions in eight speci- mens: the quantity of gold varied from 71 '48 per cent, in a fragment of a thin neck-torque, No. 200, to 96-90, in a por- tion of a bracelet, formed of twisted wires, No, 1 88, both in Case E ; and the amount of silver, from 23-67 in the former, to 2-49 in the latter. In the eight examples examined, the proportion of copper varied from 4'62 to 0'12 per cent. The admixture of alloy by our early gold- workers, if such took place, beyond that found in its natural state, or acquired by frequent working, shows an extraordinary amount of metal- lurgic knowledge, and points to a high state of civilization in the artists by whom it was employed.* An assay which we recently procured of a portion of a large thin lunula, No. 8, in Case A, showed it to be only 1 carat Of grs. less than stan- dard. It would be a matter of interest to discover whether the amount and quality of the alloy was fixed for any particu- lar variety of ornament; but as a yet sufficiently extensive series of assays and analyses have not been made to determine this point. f In the ancient annals and histories of Ireland, relating to the most remote historic periods, down to the fifteenth cen- so much benefit will in future be derived, and the intent of which will, we sincerely hope, he made as public as possible by the nobility, clergy, and gentry, and all per- sons interested in rescuing from the smelting-pot, and preserving in our great Na- tional Collection, some of the best materials for our ancient domestic history. * Gold is red or yellow, according to the amount of copper or silver with which it may be alloyed. From the circumstance of " red gold" being frequently specified in our ancient MSS., it would seem to have had a special value attached to it; but whe- ther this red ore was obtained from any particular locality, or was produced by the artificial admixture of a reddening material, is unknown at present. f In early times the men of Leinster were called " Lagenians of the Gold," from the circumstance of the quantity of gold found in the Co. Wicklow, as already stated at p. 354 of Vol. I. ; and besides the entries and references there given, the follow- ing extract from the Book of Leinster (MS., T. C. D., fol. 246 a~), for which the au- thor is indebted to the Rev. Dr. Todd, still further explains the appellation : " The reason why the men of Leinster are called ' Lagenians of the Gold' is this CLASS v. METALLIC MATERIALS: GOLD ANALYSIS. 7 tury, we find more numerous references to gold than in the re- cords of any other country in North- Western Europe. These show that gold, both in the crude and manufactured state, was in frequent use in this country in ancient times. We read of gold in bulk, or by weight, having been paid for ransom (in some instances as much as 300 ounces),* exacted as tribute, given in barter, or for charity. Of wrought gold we have notices of torques and bracelets being worn by distinguished persons ; or, in the form of rings and armillas, being presented as the reward of merit to poets and historians. Instances of all these are numerous ; but, as regards the most remarkable and pe- becanse in their country gold mines were first discovered in Erin. In the forest south of the Liffey the gold was first smelted, as the poet says ' Ucadon, the artist of Gualann, Was the first to inhabit Dord, I assert. It was in his inviolate, delightful place That gold was first boiled in Erinn ; Upon his woody, sportful lawn, Long, capacious bellows were blown By the man of unebbing fame, In the forests south of the Liffey.' " That is, the plain of the Liffey, the present Wicklow gold district, from which the river takes its name. * A. D. 989. When O'Melaughlin gained the battle of Dublin over the Danes, and besieged them in their citadel, now Dublin Castle, they at length yielded to his demand, and gave " an ounce of gold for every garden, to be paid on Christmas-night for ever." A. D. 1029. Amlaff, the Dane, when captured by Malion O'Reagain, Lord of Bregia, paid as his ransom " twelve hundred cows, sevenscore British horses, and threescore ounces of gold, and the sword of Carlus." A. D. 1151. Turlough O'Brien took with him to Connaught, besides other ar- ticles, "ten ounces of gold." A. D. 1162. When peace was concluded between the Danes and Irish, one hun- dred and twenty ounces of gold "were given by the foreigner to O'Lochlainn, King of Meath ;" and " fivescore ounces of gold" were paid by Diarmid O'Melaughlynn to Rory O'Conor, for Westmeath. A. D. 1168. Dermot MacMurrough gave one hundred ounces of gold to Tier- nan O'Rourke for his Einach, or atonement. A. D. 1169. Donough O'Carroll, Lord of Airghialla, died, " after bestowing three hundred ounces of gold, for the love of God, upon clerics and churches." Annals of the Four Masters, O'Donovan's translation. Dublin: Hodges and Smith. 8 CATALOGUE OF THE MUSEUM. culiarly Irish, as well as the most valuable specimens, both intrinsically and artistically, which have been discovered, there is no mention in our accessible Annals. They, proba- bly, belong to pre-historic times, and were lost long before the age of writing in this country. Among the most remark- able of these are the beautful diadems, coronets, and other head ornaments in the Academy's Collection. Had the Irish monarchs or provincial kings crowns ? is a question frequently asked. If they had, history is silent on the subject, and we have no records of such being used at the in- auguration of kings or chieftains. There is not in Irish his- tory an account of the ceremony of a coronation. Two golden articles, however, like caps or helmets, and which may have served as crowns, were found in Ireland during the past cen- tury. One of these, figured by Dermot O'Connor, in the in- troduction to his translation of Keating's " History of Ire- land," published in 1723, and of which the accompanying illustration is a fac-simile, was discovered in a bog at the Devil's Bit, in the Co. Tipperary, in 1692, and re- mained for some time in the possession of the Comerford family, by whom it was car- ried to France, but whether still in existence or not is unknown. It weighed only 5 oz., and must, therefore, have been very thin and slight. Its or- namentation is undoubtedly Irish, and is identical with that on some of our very early golden articles, especially lunulse and fibulas, and consists of embossed circles and straight lines, O ' some parallel, and others arranged in angles of the chevron pattern, like those seen in some of the terra-cotta urns of Pagan times.* " Another crown of gold, similar to this," * The dimensions of that article are not given, and its weight, about 5 oz., shows that it must have been very thin. In the Copenhagen Museum may be seen some CLASS V. METALLIC MATERIALS : GOLD CROWNS. 9 says Vallancey, writing in 1783, " was found some years ago on the estate of Mr. Stafford." See Collectanea, Vol. IV., p. 39. Aisin is the name used by some comparatively mo- dern Irish writers for a crown or diadem ; but it is also applied to a reliquary, and is not a term of much antiquity. At what period the crown known to moderns, and consisting of a co- ronet more or less raised, and decorated with semicircular bands or hoops passing from one side to the other, was first introduced, has not been clearly stated by writers, although, from the shape, it would appear to have had its origin in the mural crown of classic nations. The earliest insignia of power, rank, or sovereignty, would appear to have been a bands or fillets, as shown on some of the most ancient coins and gems. The fact that for centuries prior to the Anglo- Norman invasion there was not any sole monarch of Ireland, may account for the circumstance of there being no such na- tional regalia; while those magnificent golden diadems still preserved in the Academy's Collection, and which, probably, belonged to kings and queens in the days of the Irish pen- tarchy, far surpass any ornaments of the kind of a similar age discovered in North- Western Europe.* thin golden cup-shaped vessels, highly ornamented in the Scandinavian style of art which were found suspended in ancient tombs. See, in particular, Plate 61, Fig. 280, in Worsaae's Nordiske Oldsayer, 1859. If we reverse the drawing of the so-called Irish crown given above, and place it beside one of these northern vessels, the resem- blance is very striking ; or, if we reverse the latter, it quite as much resembles a cap, or crown, as that given in the foregoing illustration. Banquettiug vessels of the pre- cious metals were not unknown to the early Irish. See, among other notices, the Fragments of Irish Annals, copied by Dubhaltach Mac Firbisigb, and published by the Archaeological and Celtic Society, with a translation and notes by the late Dr. O'Donovan, in 1860. * Irish Crowns. I am aware that the opinion expressed in the text respecting the Irish crown, at least as we now understand the term, is contrary to that asserted by O' Flaherty, in the Ogygia, and Lynch, in his Cambrensis Eversus, as well as by Ward, M'Curtin, and other writers ; but as yet I have not met with any authority which describes such an article, or relates the circumstances and