Broighter Collar
Celtic Iron Age Metalwork From Ireland.
Cork Arts and Crafts

Broighter Collar

The luxuriously ornamented Broighter gold collar (torc), along with the Petrie Crown, is one of Ireland’s greatest surviving masterpieces of Celtic metalwork art from the Irish Iron Age. It was named after the townland Broighter in County Derry, where it was discovered by Thomas Nicholl in 1896 while ploughing on Joseph Gibson's field. Its discovery helped to fuel the Celtic Art Revival Movement in England.

Made by Irish metalworkers and goldsmiths during the first century BCE, the Broighter collar is a delicate tube of gold decorated in the Celtic La Tène style: an art form influenced by Greek and Etruscan culture. Each end of the collar is buffer-shaped and fit together using a beautifully made T-shaped locking device.

Part of the Broighter Hoard

The Broighter collar was only one of the items discovered in the so-called Broighter Hoard. Other gold artifacts in the gold hoard included a model boat, a small bowl, and other neck ornaments. The Broighter boat, a 10 cm long model of an Iron Age seagoing vessel was constructed from sheet gold and features an anchor, a mast, rowing benches, oars, and a boathook.

Thomas Nicholl sold the Broighter Gold Hoard for a small price and the items duly found their way into the British Museum. However, in 1897, the Royal Irish Academy took legal action in the High Court, claiming that the find was "Treasure Trove." In 1903, the High Court agreed and the Broighter collection was placed in the Royal Irish Academy's collection in the National Museum of Ireland, where it remains to this day. It represents an important early step in the history of Irish visual art.

• For more about Irish cultural history and craftwork, see: Visual Arts in Ireland.
• For information about art and crafts in Ireland, see: Irish Art: Visual Arts Cork.

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