Pin with Chain

Description This silver pin with its polyhedral-shaped head, slip-knot ring, and attached chain is a unique find from Ireland. Another pin was originally attached to the now empty ring on the other end of the chain to form a pair of pins. Paired and chain-linked pins were made in Scandinavia and have been found in Swedish Viking burials. This pin came from an Irish crannog (lake-dwelling) of a regional Irish king. It was imported to Ireland through trade, marriage, or raiding (Lagore Crannog was burned by Norse Viking settlers from Dublin in 935) and shows the contact between the Irish and Scandinavian peoples in Ireland at this time.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
6/20/1960	Treatment	cleaned
8/06/1979	Examination	examined for condition
8/07/1979	Treatment	cleaned; coated

Exhibitions

• Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979-1980.

Provenance [Found in Dunshaughlin Crannog, Co. Meath, Ireland, in 1867]; Robert Day, Cork [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Sotheby's, London, May 19-22, 1913, no. 458; William Randolf Hearst, California; Joseph Brummer, Paris; Joseph Brummer Sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, May 11-14, 1949, no. 276; Walters Art Museum, 1949, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase, 1949