Christ wall hanging age??

[Dean Perdue]

Anyone have any guesses on the age of this?
Marked on bottom JB3353 and has a removable plate on back held on by 3 small screws.
Thanks

[Julekpl]

Do you know what it may be possibly made of? Looks kind of like Iron smelted with some silver...where did you get it?

[Dean Perdue]

Hi-
I think it's silver plated.I got it at a huge antique mall called Knightsbrige here in Michigan.
It sat unsold for about a year and a half and I always admired it so I finally gave it a home.
I'm also wondering what was supposed to be kept in the compartment on back.
Measures about 5" x 3".
Thanks for your intrest Julekpl.

[Julekpl]

No problem.

   Well if it's silver plated it could mean a number of things....I'm no pro at this, but many items, for example, during the early 1900's, especially, sculptures and such, were usually made with some amount of silver in them. Some of my own collectibles, mainly old coins, were made entirely out of silver (like my 1939 German 2 mark, which is a coin if you didn't know) so I'm guessing it might be early 1900's and possibly earlier...oh and you mentioned screws on the back...are the heads of the screws the star shaped, or just the line shape?

[Dean Perdue]

The plate on back is held in with 3 small straight slotted jeweler type screws.

Also the removeable back plate is a very thin metal that has a much darker patina to it (almost black) with a suspension ring that is neatly soldered in place.
Since it was intended as a wall hanging I wonder if this compartment was meant as some sort of stash to hide things versus a place to store a rosary or something of that nature.
Would not be to practical to have to unscrew these every time you wanted to have access to a rosary IMO.

[waywardangler]

If one was without sin (not likely), there would be little need to unscrew the back often.

[Dean Perdue]

Great point waywardangler.
Almost like it is a contriction of what it represents.
Excellent insight.
Would say lol but not really funny that it's a reality.

[KC]

Have heard of some of these items used for funerary....ex locks of hair of the deceased loved one!