Fig. 37.—Ireland. ½———— Fig. 38.—Ireland. ½
There is no central ridge, but the upper part has a coarse lozenge pattern hammered upon it, the centres of the lozenges being roughly hatched with transverse lines. Possibly this roughening may have assisted to keep the blade fast in the handle, though in producing it some artistic feeling was brought to bear. There is little doubt of this instrument being of Irish origin.
Other celts, like Fig. 36, have the upper part of the blade plain and the lower ornamented. This specimen was found at Trim, Co. Meath, and is in the collection of Canon Greenwell, F.R.S. It will be observed that even the cabled fluting of the sides ceases opposite the transverse ridge.
In Figs. 37 and 38 are shown two more of these slightly flanged ornamented celts. The first is in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy, and has already been figured by Wilde (Fig. 298). The lower part of the blade is fluted transversely with chevron patterns punched in along the curved ridges. In the second, which was presented to me by Dr. Aquilla Smith, M.R.I.A., there is a fairly well defined though but slightly projecting curved stop-ridge, and the blade is decorated by boldly punched lines, forming a pattern which a herald might describe as “per saltire argent and azure.” The cable fluting on the sides is beautifully regular. The Rev. G. W. Brackenridge, of Clevedon, possesses a longer specimen (5⅜ inches), found at Tullygowan, near Gracehill, Co. Antrim, the faces of which are ornamented with a nearly similar design. Canon Greenwell has another example found at Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim.
The patterns punched upon the celts of this type show a great variety of form, and not a little fertility of design in the ancient artificers.[243] Various combinations of chevron patterns are the most frequent, though grained surfaces and straight lines like those on Fig. 17 also frequently occur. Sir William Wilde describes them as hammered, punched, engraved, or cast. Most of the patterns were, however, produced by means of punches, though it is possible that in some instances the other processes may have been used.
—Fig. 39.———Fig. 40.————Fig. 41.——— Fig. 42.———Fig. 43.
Figs. 39 to 43, borrowed from Wilde (Figs. 286 to 290), show some of the patterns full size. The punch most commonly employed must have resembled a narrow and blunt chisel; but a kind of centre-punch, producing a shallow round indentation, was also employed, and possibly a somewhat curved punch like a blunt gouge. In some cases the lines between the punched marks are, according to Wilde, engraved. It is, however, a question whether even the finest lines might not have been produced by a chisel used after the manner of a punch. What were probably punches for producing such patterns have been found in some English hoards, as will subsequently be mentioned; and in the Fonderie de Larnaud, Jura,[244] was a punch with an engrailed end for producing a kind of “milled” mark, either in the mould or on the casting. Another, with concentric circles, seems best adapted for impressing the loam of the mould.
Some few of the Irish ornamented celts have well-defined stop-ridges like the English example, Fig. 51; but these will be more in their place in the following chapter. One or two other forms may, however, be here mentioned, though they approximate closely to the chisels described in subsequent pages.