Coffey — Recent Prehistoric Finds acquired by the Academy. 89 



widow, Lady Staples, who bequeathed it to tlie Hon. Mrs. Burrell, who left 

 it to her daughter, the Hon. Mrs. Henniker Heaton, from whom it was 

 purchased by the Academy in 1912. It is figured by Sir William Wilde in 

 the Catalogue of the E. I. A. Collection, p. 442, fig. 314, as the finest l)ronze 

 rapier ever discovered in Ireland, and he presented, by Lady Staples' 

 permission, a cast of the rapier to the collection. 



Wilde's opinion of this rapier is confirmed by Sir John Evans, ^ who 

 reproduced the illustration from the E. I. A. Catalogue. I would, however, 

 go further than this, and describe it as the finest specimen of a rapier I have 

 seen in any museum. 



In the illustration of the rapier given by Wilde, and copied by others, two 

 rivets are shown at the base of the blade. The rapier has now only one rivet, 

 and on its purchase I was informed by the owner that, to the best of her 

 knowledge, there never had been more than one. The great length of the 

 rapier must have required much skill and care in the casting. In shows no 

 imperfections or running of the metal in any place. To produce such a 

 weapon in bronze would put a modern founder on his mettle. 



The manner of hafting these early swords and daggers is fortunately 

 quite certain, as a few hafted examples have been found. Some were 

 hafted with handles of cast bronze, and a few had handles of horn of 

 the same type as those of bronze, but the hilts for the most part would 

 seetn to have been made of horn or some other perishable substance, as they 

 have not been recovered. The curious scolloped mark of the hilt is in 

 many cases quite clear. 



Figure 4 of Plate VI [ represents a bronze dagger which has often been 

 illustrated. All the illustrations show the sides of the hilt as decorated with 

 an ornament of cross-hatched triangles. This ornament on the sides, if it ever 

 existed, which is doubtful, cannot now be traced. Montelius assigns this 

 dagger to his third period, dated from the seventeenth to the end of the fifteenth 

 century B.C.- Figure 5, Plate VIII, is a bronze-hilted rapier found in Co. 

 Tipperary, and formerly in the Petrie collection. The hilt and lower poition 

 of the blade are figured after Wilde, by Montelius, who places it in his fourth 

 period, dated at the end of the fifteenth, to the middle of the twelfth century 

 B.C. It is now drawn completely for the first time. It had originally four 

 rivets, of which two remain. We may place it towards the end of the 

 fourth period. 



Figure 5, Plate VII, shows a broken weapon of rapier form, found in a 

 bog near Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, in 1901, with a very remarkable hilt made 



" Bronze Implements," p. 252, fig. 318. ^ Archfeologia, vol. Ixi, p. 97. 



