8vo. [4], 100, iv pp. With 90 engraved illustrations in the text. Later brown half-morocco, marbled paper boards, lettered in gilt to spine. With original publisher's printed buff wrappers and a contemporary envelope addressed to 'Mr. Pfister, Medal Room, British Museum' bound in. Rubbed, spine dulled. Ink-stamp of the Birmingham Assay Office to recto of FFEP.

The sole edition of a comprehensive catalogue of the gold and gold- plated artefacts held by the Royal Irish Academy, compiled by Anglo-Irish oto-ophthalmologic physician, and father of Oscar Wilde, William Robert Wilde (1815-1876); the third and final volume of a series on the antiquities kept by the institution, the first was published to coincide with the association's meeting in Dublin in 1857.

The Birmingham Assay Office, one of the four assay offices in the United Kingdom, was founded in 1773 and to this day remains responsible for testing the purity of precious metals and issuing hallmarks of certification.