Ancient torc found in Cork  in 1882 sells at auction

Discovered near Rathcormac 'by a peasant, beneath a stone, in a field, when ploughing'

The silver torc has spirally twisted thin bands and a chased chevron pattern.

An ancient Celtic ribbon torc believed to be part of a hoard found at Rathcormac, Co. Cork in 1882-83, sold for £45,200 (€53,019) at Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh. The three recorded examples of the hoard are at the National Museum of Scotland and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The silver torc at Lyon and Turnbull is in the same exceptionally rare style known only from this hoard with spirally twisted thin bands and a chased chevron pattern. 

The c500 BC - 500 AD hoard was first described in an anonymous article in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1883-4. This recounts that Ralph Westropp of Cork exhibited a silver torc with an accompanying note: "It seems that this was found near Rathcormack, county of Cork, with five others of similar make about the close of last year or early in the present one, by a peasant, beneath a stone, in a field, when ploughing". It is known that the torc belonged to Robert Carfrae (1820-1900). It has belonged to the same family in Edinburgh since the 1920's.