Roscrea Brooch

Roscrea brooch
Front view
Material	silver, amber, gold filigree[1]
Size	Height 9.5 cm, width 8.3 cm, depth 0.6 cm
Created	(early?) 9th century
Discovered	c. 1829 Roscrea, County Tipperary, or nearby
Present location	National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
Identification	NMI P.737[2]

The Roscrea brooch is a 9th-century Celtic brooch of the pseudo-penannular type, found at or near Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland, before 1829.^[3] It is made from cast silver, and decorated with zoomorphic patterns of open-jawed animals and gilded gold filigree, and is 9.5 cm in height and 8.3 cm wide. The silver is of an unusually high quality for Irish metalwork of the period, indicating that its craftsmen were both trading materials with settled Vikings, who had first, traumatically, invaded the island in the preceding century, and had absorbed elements of the Scandinavian's imagery and metalwork techniques.^[4]

It was rediscovered in the 1820s and was in the possession of the artist and antiquarian George Petrie in 1850, until acquired in 1867 by the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, following his death the previous year. Although not considered as innovative and significant as near contemporary examples, such as the Tara Brooch, it is formed from unusually high-quality material, including first-grade silver and its linings of amber, which was very difficult to source in Ireland at the time.

Replicas of the brooch became popular in the mid-19th century Celtic Revival, some of which are of very high quality.^[5] Despite the loss of some of its bosses, it is in overall good condition. The brooch is held in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.