Two large collections of foreign antiquities have been purchased during the last year, by the Trustees of the Museum, which are of considerable importance to the English archaeologist. The first of these is the very extensive collection of Celtic and Roman-Colonial Antiquities formed by M. Commarmond, of Lyons; a collection well worthy of examination, from the great similiarity of many of the objects in it, to those found in this country. The other collection is that formed by Professor Bähr, of Dresden, consisting of a vast quantity of bronze ornaments, and iron weapons and implements discovered by him in the graves of the Livonians. From the coins found with them, the greater part of these relics appear to belong to the tenth and eleventh centuries: they are closely allied with antiquities found in Denmark, but present many characteristic differences.[1] Both these collections are of great value from their having been made by two eminent archaeologists, who have watched the finding of the various objects and have recorded the parculars of their discovery.
It is scarcely necessary for me to call the attention of members of the Archaeological Institute to the value of a museum of national antiquities. We have all felt the want of it too much. For till such a collection is formed—till a large mass of antiquities has been been brought together from various parts of England and properly arranged, it will be impossible to make great advances in the study of our early antiquities. Local museums are institutions of great value, as they rescue from destruction many relics which would otherwise be lost, and they encourage a local feeling of reverence for the memorials of the past Still their claims are very inferior to those of a national collection. Objects of great importance to the archaeologist often He buried in these far distant receptacles, affording him facts of the highest value as links in a great chain, but in their isolation perfectly useless.
It is to the members of societies like our own, to the great lords of manors, the parish clergymen and country antiquaries that we must look for assistance. The value of objects is frequently lost when they pass through a dealer's hands: their authenticity is destroyed and their history
- ↑ They are fully described and engraved in Dr. Bähr's work, Die Gräber der Liven. Dresden, 1850.
