“A 2,000-year-old Iron Age fire guard has been accepted into Wales’ national museum in lieu of inheritance tax.
The Capel Garmon Firedog, once one of a pair on the hearth of a chieftain’s roundhouse, is regarded as one of the finest surviving prehistoric iron artefacts in Europe.”
More here...
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-16252711
And more about the artefact here...
museumwales.ac.uk/en/rhagor/article/1940/
Wonder what the maker / original owner would have made of it being used like this?!!!
In the deep of a South Lanarkshire winter my wee family huddles round our coal and log fire in the living room during these cold winters. I found some fantastic tree stumps and logs deep (six feet deep!) in Galloway peat back in September and October which I'll be burning over the next week or two. My hearth "companion set" (£2.50 from the local charidee shoppe) just doesn't cut the mustard next to this crazy beast of hearth furniture.
Use this fire iron to pay a tax bill? I'd work till the day I die to have this monster keeping guard by my fire!