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ample of Niello, upon the reverse of this brooch, a solitary in- 

 stance, though we have seen none before of such delicate beauty ; 

 but of the carving or casting of glass into the forms of human 

 faces, as seen in this brooch, no other example is, I believe, to 

 be found. 



" I have now stated the principal points observable in this 

 beautiful remain, to which it seemed to me desirable that the 

 attention of the Academy should be drawn, and I shall only 

 add a few words more. 



" The general form and character of this brooch is that 

 usually recognised as peculiarly Irish, or perhaps more properly 

 Celtic, for it was, at all events, common to Scotland ; and if 

 we can trust to the authority of the author of ' The Pillars of 

 Hercules,' it is also common to Moorish tribes of Africa, and 

 derived from thence ; but, be that as it may, it is certainly of a 

 very great and unknown antiquity in Ireland. Not so, how- 

 ever the various arts displayed in its manufacture, which, how- 

 ever derived from an earlier period, are those of Christianized 

 Greece and Rome, as practised on the decline of the higher 

 and nobler arts of design, when, as St. Chrysostom acquaints 

 us, ' all admiration was reserved for goldsmiths and weavers.' 

 And as to the age to which this exquisite specimen of those 

 arts should be assigned, I should with little hesitation state as 

 my opinion, founded on the peculiar character of most of the 

 ornaments found upon it, though examples of a few of them 

 may be found of an earlier antiquity, that it should be assigned 

 to that period when such arts were carried to the greatest artis- 

 tic perfection, namely, the eleventh, or, perhaps, the early part 

 of the twelfth century. 



" And further, should it be an object of inquiry what the 

 probable rank of the owner of such a costly ornament had been, 

 I would with as little hesitation express my opinion that the 

 rank must have been a princely one ; as we have the autho- 

 rity of a tract of our most ancient Brehon laws that the size 



