Armstrong — Catalogue of Silver and Ecclesiastical Antiquities, 299 



it ; the terminals are edged with settings of coloured glass, or garnet, and 

 amber. The head of the pin is broken ; it measures 5|- inches long, and the 

 hoop is 3| inches in breadth. The brooch weighs 5 oz. 1 dwt. 16grs. It is 

 stated to have been found at Kilmainham, and is figured E. I. A. Celtic 

 Christian Guide, 2nd ed., p. 28, fig. 23. See also Archaeologia, vol. lxv, 

 p. 239. 



Finger Rings. 



The finger rings dealt with by Sir William Wilde in his MS. catalogue only 

 include those of silver or white metal, and are a varied assortment. The 

 descriptions in the MS. list, which are of a very summary character, have made 

 the identification in several cases uncertain and in some impossible. For such 

 of the rings as have been identified (either certainly or with considerable 

 doubt) a more technical and modern description, taken, with alterations where 

 necessary, from the Museum's Catalogue of the Academy's collection of 

 finger rings, 1 has been substituted for that of the catalogue, while some 

 blocks from the same work have been made use of by permission of the 

 Director of the National Museum. 



Of the rings described, numbers 22 to 26 belong to a form allied to the 

 well-known and widely distributed stirrup type, which goes' back to the 

 thirteenth century, though the rings described are probably somewhat later 

 than this date. Numbers 27 to 29 and 30 are decade rings. These are rings 

 which have, as a rule, ten projections for the fingers to touch while prayers 

 are recited, their use being similar to that of the rosary. The rings described 

 are probably of seventeenth-century date. 



1. Silver, a plain hoop, inscribed on the inside feare God only. Greatest 

 external diameter § of an inch ; weight 4 dwts. 17+ grs. (Dawson Collection, 

 127.) 



2. Silver, plain hoop, inscribed on the inside + FOE + GET + ME + NOT. 

 Greatest external diameter | of an inch ; weight 1 dwt. 17 grs. (Dawson 

 Collection, 128.) 



3. Silver, a plain hoop ; 1492 is scratched on the exterior, and on the 

 inside ^E and other marks and letters. Greatest external diameter |- of an inch ; 

 weight 3 dwts. 2 grs. (1881 : 125). (Identification uncertain.) 



4. Silver, a plain hoop, inscribed on the inside feare god only. Greatest 

 external diameter f of an inch ; weight 4 dwts. (Dawson Collection, 127.) 



1 Catalogue of the Finger Rings in the Collection of the Royal Irish Academy in the 

 National Museum, Dublin, by E. C. R. Armstrong, (To be obtained at the Museum, 

 price 2d.) 



