Ardagh Chalice
The Ardagh Chalice is a two-handled silver cup made in Ireland in the eighth century AD and found in 1868, together with a hoard of other church metalwork and a bronze pin, inside a ring-fort at Ardagh in County Limerick. The vessel is built of silver with a bronze core, and its decoration of gold filigree, glass studs and enamel panels, executed in the interlacing animal style of Insular art, ranks it among the greatest treasures of early medieval Europe. It was probably made for use at Mass in a wealthy monastery, and it shares its technical brilliance with the contemporary Derrynaflan Chali