Description
This heirloom rosary combines 8mm green aventurine beads for the Ave beads with 12mm black quartz Paters; the Paters are set off with (and protected from wear) by sterling bead caps.
The center is a vintage double-sided silver-plated and oxidized center with Christ the King on the front and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on the reverse, framed with a Baroque arch. This center is “new old stock”, which means it came from the unused stock of a jeweler and dates from the mid-20th century, but has never before been used.
The crucifix is a vintage work of art! The silver-plated corpus is mounted on a large beveled cross with the traditional iconographic symbols of the four Evangelists on the four ends. On the reverse are pictured the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries (read starting in the top box, left to right, down the center, then across the crosspiece left box top to bottom, across to the right box, top and bottom, then down the center). In the center is the Marian monogram. (There is another similar double-sided crucifix that has the Stations of the Cross on the reverse and a crown of thorns instead of the Marian monogram.)
The crucifix is aluminum, which, contrary to common belief, does not mean that it is or was cheap; actually, in the early 20th century, during the wars, silver was so scarce and aluminum new, plentiful, and relatively inexpensive, that most medals were struck in aluminum rather than in silver, which opened up the possibility of owning a medal to many more people. Aluminum, like German alpacca (which is also known as ‘nickel silver’ but does not contain any silver) and bronze, takes a very crisp impression when struck, so even though this cross is quite old, the details are still good; and there is no degrading of the aluminum as sometimes happens.
Sterling silver-filled wire (22 gauge) was used in this rosary.
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