On a slab in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy[1673] there are moulds for two flat celts, and also for one with a stop-ridge and a loop. It would appear as if the founder must have possessed a second half of this latter mould.
Two moulds formed of stone, and apparently intended for flat or slightly flanged celts, have been found at Bodio in the Lago di Varese.[1674]
Moulds for palstaves and socketed celts have been found both of stone and of bronze, but it will be well to reserve the latter until all the forms of moulds made of stone have been considered. Such celt moulds have always been made in halves.
In Fig. 516 is shown the half of a mould for palstaves, which is now in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy. The other half is with it. They are formed of sandstone. It is uncertain in what part of Ireland they were found.
Another mould, formed of mica schist, and now in the British Museum, was found in the river Bann, and was intended for short palstaves about 3½ inches long.
———Fig. 516.—Ireland. ½ —————Fig. 517.—Ireland. 1/1
The half of a mould for casting palstaves of a somewhat broader form was found near Lough Corrib, Galway,[1675] and is in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. Another has been engraved by Dunoyer,[1676] who has also figured a mould for a looped palstave, from the Museum of the University of Dublin. A stone mould from Ireland, for palstaves with double loops, is in the Antiquarian Museum at Edinburgh. As the halves of these stone moulds are rarely made so as to be dowelled together, they are almost always of exactly the same size externally, so as to be readily adjustable into their proper position when tied together for the reception of the metal.
The half of a mould for a small palstave, with transverse edge, is shown full size in Fig. 517. The original is of green schist, and is in the Royal Academy Museum at Dublin. It is remarkable that a mould for so rare a form should have been found. A stone mould for transverse palstaves of the same kind has, however, lately been discovered in the Lac de Bienne[1677] by Dr. V. Gross.