The earliest of the series from Barlaston, Staffordshire, now in the possession of Miss Wedgwood, has three handles all alike, ornamented with discs of enamel, the designs on which are distinctly Late-Celtic in style, and consist of small circles connected by =C=- and =S=-shaped curves. In the case of the enamelled handles of the other specimens, closely coiled spirals of the Bronze Age type take the place of the circles, and by this trifling alteration the character of the design is so completely changed as to be almost identical with the spiral decoration of the Book of Durrow and other Irish MSS. of the same period. We see here exactly when and how the flamboyant ornament of Pagan Celtic art became transformed into the spiralwork of the Christian illuminated MSS. which was afterwards applied to the decoration of the sculptured crosses and ecclesiastical metalwork. The circumstances under which the bowls have been found show that they belong to the Pagan Saxon period between A.D. 450 and 600. [Illustration: Spiral Ornament from the Book of Durrow] In the museum of the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House there is the cast of an object from the collection of Mr. Albert Way, the well-known antiquary, which exhibits a curious mixture of styles. Where the original is, or where it came from, is unfortunately not known, but it has every appearance of having been of metal. In the middle of the object is a square panel of triangular pierced work, exactly like that on the cover of the Stowe Missal[359] (made A.D. 1023 to 1052); whilst at each of the rounded ends are curved designs with trumpet-shaped expansions of pronounced Late-Celtic type. Plaitwork, which is, of course, one of the leading motives of Celtic art of the Christian period, occurs occasionally in association with Pagan flamboyant ornament, as on a brooch from the Ardakillen[360] crannog, near Stokestown, Co. Roscommon (now in the Dublin Museum), and on a gold armlet from Rhayader,[361] Radnorshire (now in the British Museum). Amongst objects belonging to the early Christian Celtic period before A.D. 600, may probably be classed the leaf-shaped silver plates engraved with symbols from Norrie’s Law,[362] Forfarshire, and the terminal link of a silver chain, also engraved with symbols, from Crawfordjohn,[363] Lanarkshire (all in the Edinburgh Museum of Antiquities). The hammer-headed pins also, a list of which has already been given (p. 108), seem, from the enamelled designs upon them, to belong to the transitional period between Celtic Paganism and Christianity. [359] Miss M. Stokes’ _Early Christian Art in Ireland_, p. 92. The Stowe Missal is in the Museum of the R.I.A. at Dublin. [360] Sir W. Wilde’s _Catal. Mus. R.I.A._, p. 569. [361] _Archæologia Cambrensis_, ser. 5, vol. xvi., p. 261. [362] Dr. J. Anderson’s _Scotland in Early Christian Times_, 2nd ser., p. 38. [363] _Ibid._, p. 44.