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XLIII. 



^OTES ON THE COMPOSITION OF A.NCIENT IRISH GOLD 

 AND SILVER ORNAMENTS. By ERNEST A. SMITH, 

 Assoc. R.S.M., E.C.S., Royal School of Mines, London. 



LCOMMUNICATED BT PEOFESSOE J. P. o'rEILLY, M.E.I. A.] 

 [Kead June 24, 1895.] 



In a very interesting Memoir^ on " The Chemical Examination of 

 Antiquities from the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy," pre- 

 sented to this Academy on April 11, 1853, Mr. J. W. Mallet gives 

 the results of the examination of a number of ancient Irish gold and 

 silver ornaments, which was undertaken in the hope that more exten- 

 sive and accurate chemical information might be found of value in 

 elucidating the history of the ancient arts by which these objects 

 were produced. As no other country in Europe posseses so much 

 manufactured gold belonging to early and mediaeval times as Ireland, 

 an investigation of this description is of special value and interest. 

 The memoir appears to be the first record of any analyses of this class 

 of Celtic antiquities. 



The main object sought in the investigation, in connection with 

 the gold and silver antiquities, was to ascertain, as far as possible, 

 whether the ornaments were manufactured from native gold, or from 

 alloys artificially produced. 



From the results obtained by the analysis of eight gold ornaments, 

 carefully selected from the valuable collection of the Royal Irish 

 Academy, Mr. Mallet concluded, that " if these ornaments presented 

 no appearance of determined composition and, on the whole, contained 

 less silver, it might be supposed that they were made of native gold, 

 merely fused, and worked into the required shapes; but, from the 

 results actually obtained, although they are by no means conclu- 

 sive on this point, it appears more likely that, on the contrary, 

 these articles were made from alloys artificially produced, and 



^ Trans, of Eoyal Irisli Academy, vol. xxii., p. 313. 



