hello
It's been a while since I've been on this site, but I have a new purchase that I am a bit curious about... I picked up a somewhat old looking rosary while on vacation just because I liked it ( & because my other rosary broke, and I decided to buy a new one but I was having problems liking some of the new ones I've seen for sale...anyways I found this one while hunting for a birthday gift for my mom in an antique shop). I know that rosaries are a bit tough to date, as the style doesn't change drastically like some other items do...but I still was wondering if anyone could help me with this.
I've taken pictures...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/61439622@N02/the rosary is about 17 and 3/8 of an inch (i accidentally cut off the one picture), the crucifix is about an inch and a half, the medal is about 1/2", and the beads are about 3/16"-4/16".
The medal has two different depictions. On the front side it's The Sacred Heart of Jesus, and I can't really make out what was on the back as it is worn down a bit...There is writing above the figure, which I can piece together that it is NS DE Fatima (Our Lady of Fatima).
I'm not good at telling apart metals, etc. the chains to me are a bronze color, and the medal/crucifix looks like it was maybe some sort of silver or whatever (aluminum, tin, i really don't know), but it's really dingy at the moment...and i'm not sure how to clean it.
The back of the crucifix says ROME in the center, but near the bottom ITALY is stamped off to the side. (which all the ones I've seen lately only say ITALY)
And then the beads are different than what I've seen recently...They aren't all completely smooth...there are some beads where in the middle you can feel where each half of the bead overlaps each other if that makes any sense
So that's all I can really tell you about it at the moment. I've been trying to look it up myself online, but I'm not finding a whole lot of information that I would really call valuable. So any help would be appreciated
thanks!!!
ash