288 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Class V. Metallic Materials. 

 Order IV. Silver and Findruine. 



Irish antiquities of silver (in Irish Aip^e^t)) are much rarer and their 

 varieties more limited than those of gold, being chiefly confined to armillae, 

 pins, and brooches. These latter articles, however, far exceed in size, beauty, 

 and style of ornament any others known in Europe. But although more 

 elaborate and massive, they are also much less ancient than the gold 

 antiquities described in the foregoing section of the catalogue ; they evidently 

 belong to Christian times, and partake of that style of art observed in our 

 shrines, crosses, and illuminated manuscripts. We possess undoubted evi- 

 dence of the existence of native gold from the very earliest times, but the 

 localities from whence the silver of our antique manufactured articles were 

 obtained is not so clear. The great bulk of the Irish silver of the present 

 day is derived from our lead ; but we can scarcely suppose that the artificers 

 of the date of these articles were acquainted with the mode now employed of 

 separating the silver from the baser metal. There is comparatively little 

 notice of silver to be found in our ancient records, most of which date from a 

 period antecedent to that which can be assigned to these articles of personal 

 decoration. That many of the objects are of Irish manufacture there can be 

 little doubt. 



Several of our Irish ring-brooches of silver are inlaid with gold filigree, 

 and many of them jewelled. But besides these we possess others of the 

 same form and style of art, composed of a white metal, a compound of silver, 

 tin, and copper, called in ancient Irish authors findruine, or white bronze, of 

 which mention has already been made at page 358 of vol. i. 



Though antique articles of silver are much less frequent than those of 

 gold, the number of ingots, bars, and rudely or partially manufactured speci- 

 mens of the former is much greater than that of the latter. Silver articles are 

 when found of a much darker colour than those of white bronze or findruine, 

 and the metal is so very pure as to be excessively friable, even in some cases 

 crumbling on very slight pressure. When cleaned it is of a very white lustre, 

 which it retains untarnished for a long time. 



The editor wishes to add that the silver tores, ingots, and bracelets 

 which form the bulk of the silver objects in the Academy's collection 

 belong to the Viking period, and exactly resemble silver ornaments that 

 have been found in hoards in the north of England, Orkney, and various 

 parts of the Scandinavian lands. Of these the Cuerdale hoard is the best 

 known in the British Islands. It was discovered in 1840 at Cuerdale in 



