# The Ardagh Chalice > Unknown Irish ecclesiastical metalworking workshop, probably Munster - 8th century AD (commonly given as c. 750) > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/irish-8th-century-workshop-munster/ardagh-chalice-national-museum-ireland/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-24 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Unknown Irish ecclesiastical metalworking workshop, probably Munster - **Date:** 8th century AD (commonly given as c. 750) - **Medium:** Silver, gilt bronze, brass, lead-tin (pewter), gold filigree and wirework, cloisonne enamel, glass and amber studs, rock crystal - **Dimensions:** Height 17.80 cm per the National Museum of Ireland's own catalogue record. Secondary sources give the rim width as either approximately 19 cm (7.5 in) or approximately 24 cm (9.5 in); this record could not resolve which figure is correct and states both, see notes_for_editor. - **Object type:** Goldsmith's work - **Period:** Irish early medieval (Insular) - **Current location:** National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology, Kildare Street, Dublin, on permanent display in The Treasury gallery - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary Found in September 1868 by two boys digging potatoes in a ringfort field at Reerasta, near Ardagh, County Limerick, the Ardagh Chalice is an 8th-century Irish liturgical vessel built from 354 separate pieces of silver, gilt bronze, gold filigree, enamel, glass and amber. It was already old, by at least a century and probably more, when it was buried alongside a brooch datable to around 900 AD, the true date of its concealment rather than its manufacture.Bishop George Butler of Limerick paid the finders a reward of GBP 50 for it; the Royal Irish Academy bought it from him in 1874 for a price the sources disagree on, and the whole collection passed to the newly founded National Museum of Ireland in 1890, where it has remained on permanent display ever since, with one recorded exception: a 1977 loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.Scholars once proposed the chalice was made at Clonmacnoise and stolen by a Viking raider; that theory is now largely discounted in favour of a Munster origin, strengthened by the related Derrynaflan Hoard found in 1980. A separate, modern electrotype reproduction of the chalice, made in the early 20th century, is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and should never be confused with the medieval original described here. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **8th century AD** Unknown Irish workshop, probably Munster `[documented]` (manufacture) Dating to the 8th century and manufacture in Ireland are accepted on stylistic and technical grounds. The specific workshop location, Munster against the discounted Clonmacnoise theory, remains disputed; see the artist dossier. - **8th century AD-September 1868** Unrecorded `[unknown]` (gap and concealment) No owner, custodian or specific historical event is recorded for this period. The hoard's latest object, a thistle brooch, dates to around the end of the 9th or start of the 10th century, which sets a terminus post quem of roughly 900 AD for the act of concealment; the chalice was therefore already at least a century old, and quite possibly considerably more, when it was buried. It was found beneath a single stone slab, consistent with deliberate concealment for safekeeping rather than accidental loss, in a period generally associated with Viking-era disruption in Ireland. No source consulted ties the concealment to a specific named raid or owner. - **September 1868** Jim Quin (also rendered Quinn) and Paddy Flanagan, finders `[documented]` (discovery) Found while digging potatoes in a field at Reerasta ringfort, near Ardagh, County Limerick, beneath a stone slab that the chalice itself had sheltered. The precise spelling of Quin's surname and the question of which boy actually made the find are both disputed in the sources consulted; see open questions. - **September 1868-1874** George Butler, Catholic Bishop of Limerick `[documented]` (acquisition) Quin's mother sold, or surrendered, the hoard to Bishop Butler, who paid a reward reported at GBP 50 in total, split GBP 40 to the Quin family and GBP 10 to Flanagan. This split is repeated consistently across the independent secondary sources consulted, though none of them reproduces a contemporary 1868 or 1869 primary account verbatim. - **1874-1890** Royal Irish Academy `[disputed]` (purchase) The Academy acquired the hoard from Bishop Butler in 1874, a year corroborated by the museum's own registration number, 1874:99, still in use today. The price paid is disputed among the sources consulted: some give GBP 500 following a described dispute over treasure-trove law, at least one other gives GBP 100 and a different year, 1878, for the same transaction. This record states both figures rather than resolving the conflict. - **1890-1977** National Museum of Ireland, Dublin `[documented]` (transfer) The Royal Irish Academy's antiquities collection, the Ardagh Hoard among it, was transferred to the National Museum of Ireland when the museum was established and opened in 1890. The museum's own catalogue record lists the acquisition method as donation and the collector as the Royal Irish Academy, consistent with this sequence. - **1977** On loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco `[documented]` (loan) Shown as part of the exhibition Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., drawing on the National Museum of Ireland, the Royal Irish Academy and Trinity College Dublin. The only international loan of the original object found in the sources consulted for this record; a later loan cannot be ruled out, only that none was found. - **1977-present** National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology, Kildare Street, Dublin `[documented]` (current location) On permanent public display in The Treasury gallery, per the museum's own website. ## Open questions - What did the Royal Irish Academy actually pay Bishop Butler for the hoard in 1874? Secondary sources give both GBP 100 and GBP 500, and at least one source gives a different year, 1878, for the same transaction. - Who buried the hoard at Reerasta around or after 900 AD, and why was it never recovered? No source consulted identifies an owner, a specific threat, or a reason for the roughly one-and-a-half-century gap between the chalice's manufacture and its concealment. - Was the chalice definitely made in Munster? The Munster case is favoured by most recent scholarship following the 1980 Derrynaflan discovery, but this record found no source that treats the question as fully closed. - What is the correct rim diameter? Secondary sources disagree by a significant margin, roughly 19 cm against roughly 24 cm, and this record could not adjudicate between them from the sources consulted. - Who wrote the 2005 Journal of Celtic Studies article on the list of apostles' names, and what exactly does it argue? This record located the article's existence and place of publication but could not retrieve its author or full text. - Did the chalice leave Ireland on loan at any point other than the 1977 Treasures of Early Irish Art tour to New York and San Francisco? This record found no evidence of any other international loan, but absence of evidence in this research pass is not evidence of absence. - Which of the two finders, Jim Quin or Paddy Flanagan, actually made the discovery? More than one secondary source suggests Flanagan may have found it first but was denied credit because of his status as a labourer, without settling the question. ## Sources - [1] National Museum of Ireland, Collections Online, catalogue record for the Ardagh Chalice, Museum Number 1874:99, Irish Antiquities Division. - [2] National Museum of Ireland, 'The Ardagh Chalice,' The Treasury. - [3] Wikipedia, 'Ardagh Hoard.' Tertiary source consolidating the technical description, the Stone quotation and the workshop-origin debate; flagged for replacement with Wallace and O Floinn (eds.), Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities, and with Bhreathnach, 'The cultural and political milieu of the deposition and manufacture of the hoard discovered at Reerasta Rath, Ardagh, Co. Limerick,' in Redknap (ed.), Pattern and Purpose in Insular Art (Oxbow Books, 2001), neither of which this record independently consulted. - [4] Voices from the Dawn, 'Ardagh Ringfort.' - [5] Limerick Diocesan Heritage Project, 'Ardagh-Carrickerry Parish,' citing Treasures of Early Irish Art (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977) and Bishop Jeremiah Newman, Treasures of Thomond. - [6] The Irish Times, 'National treasure: An Irishman's Diary on the Ardagh Chalice.' - [7] Irish Examiner, 'Munster in 30 Artworks, No 17: The Ardagh Chalice, found in Co Limerick.' Quotes Maeve Sikora, Keeper of Irish Antiquities, National Museum of Ireland. - [8] World History Encyclopedia, 'Ardagh Chalice,' by Jenny Snook, 18 November 2020. Tertiary source; flagged for replacement with the primary museum catalogue and the Gogan monograph. - [9] History Is Now Magazine, 'Treasure from the Golden Age of Ireland: The Ardagh Hoard,' by Jenny Snook, 31 August 2020. Tertiary source; flagged for replacement with a primary account of the Royal Irish Academy transaction. - [10] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection record for 'The Ardagh Chalice' (reproduction), object ID 463050, classification Reproductions-Metalwork, object date early 20th century (original dated ca. 750), Rogers Fund, 1906. - [11] Sotheby's, '44 Fitzwilliam Square: Works from the Estate of the Late Patrick Kelly,' 2020, Lot 9, 'The Ardagh Chalice. A Victorian Silver-gilt Replica Two-handled Rose Bowl, Frederick Elkington, London, 1879.' - [12] 'The list of the apostles on the bowl of the Ardagh Chalice,' Journal of Celtic Studies 5 (2005), pp. 107-113. Author not confirmed from the excerpts available to this record; full text not retrieved. - [13] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, publication page for Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D. (1977 exhibition catalogue). --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.