The Wicklow Brooch
August
The Ulster Museum's newest acquisition is an exceptional medieval brooch, presented to National Museums Northern Ireland by the National Art Collections Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, who purchased it for £82,000 following a special arrangement with HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax.
The brooch is made of silver and belongs to a distinctive Irish type of the late 9th or early 10th century. Only 25 such brooches exist and only one other example is held (in the Ulster Museum) by National Museums Northern Ireland.
Made of cast silver, it is decorated with raised bosses and with interlaced birds. It was designed to fasten a heavy cloak and is provided with a pin 19cm (7.5 inches) long. The brooch was a symbol of wealth and status, perhaps even of royalty, and might have been worn by either a man or woman. It was found at Ballyvolan, County Wicklow, more than a hundred years ago and was long in private ownership in England.
The brooch is currently on display in the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, and will have a prominent place in the Ulster Museum when it reopens in 2009.
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