5 Heirloom Rosaries

Here are some Heirloom rosaries to look at. These are the rosaries that stand out because they are usually more expensive than your average rosary and meant to be looked at as much as prayed upon. Still, in the tradition of glorifying God by building grand cathedrals, these rosaries do the same, just in a smaller and more portable way.

Small RLC rosary

Proof that good things come both in small packages and to those who wait - here is my newest RLC rosary.

It's small, it only has a hanging length of 20 inches, but it has all original sterling silver hardware including filigree extenders and its original tag of authenticity for both the rock crystal beads and the silver. I haven't cleaned it or done any work on it yet, but I can't wait to see it when it's done. It's a beautiful rosary.

Red crystal and sterling rosary by Gloria

The ruby red beads of this rosary can look almost black until the light shines through them, but they are really a deep deep red. Each one is capped in fluted silver. The whole rosary is silver including the filigreed extenders and the medals (though the 2 red enamel ones are silver plate). The center medal and crucifix are hallmarked "Gloria" and stamped sterling. The hanging length is approx 24 inches.

Sterling and Onyx Rosary from PL

Matte black onxy beads feel like silk to the touch. This rosary is also very new and so it hasn't been cleaned. It has a PL mark on the crucifix, but the centermedal is unmarked. The bright spot on the middle is where the seller (presumably) did an acid spot test on the silver. It will disappear once the piece is cleaned. Another test on a more hidden area of the centermedal confirms the 925 sterling content. All of the assembly of the rosary is sterling and the hanging length is approx 26 inches.

New Jet and Sterling Rosary

This is a new rosary that I haven't cleaned or added any medals to. It has 20 sided faceted jet beads, open work spacers, and is all sterling. The crucifix and centermedal are both hallmarked with the triangular "catamore" hallmark. It has a hanging length of approximately 23 inches.

Crystal and Sterling Heirloom Rosary

This rock crystal and sterling rosary has a hanging length of over 25 inches. The beads are 8mm and make the rosary very heavy. Each one is capped in silver. The medals are all silver and have maker's marks on them. This rosary was made by RLC and is marked sterling on both the crucifix and centermedal.

It should sell for between $65 -$85.

Accept no imitations

The unfortunate truth is that there are fakes everywhere, even in the business of vintage rosaries. Classic designs by Gloria, LP, and RLC are copied, cast in silver, stamped sterling, and then resold without hallmarks as poor imitations of the originals. The problem is that sometimes they are really obvious and terrible looking, as in the case with this rosary.

The origin of these pictures has been kept secret to protect the innocent:




This is probably the worst imitation of a Gloria rosary I have ever seen. Sure it's shiny, but it just makes me sad.



Okay. I'll admit it. The photography kind of bums me out too...

I shall call her... FrankenRosary....

I kept everybody in suspense and didn't even mean to!

This rosary is actually made from 3 different rosaries, hence the name "Frankenrosary".

When Elwing first started finding rosaries at street markets, she didn't know about decades and Hail Mary's and Our Fathers, so some of her first rosaries were absolutely gorgeous, but sadly, incomplete. I saved these in hopes that one day, their parts would come in use. One in particular had a set of fantastic brass integrated medals. It also had this terrific ebony and metal crucifix - like the kind you see on plastic rosaries all the time with the medal backing bent over the arms of the cross. This one was made right though and it looked great. The crucifix went to a rosary with perfect silver capped bohemian glass beads and a plastic (?) crucifix that simply wouldn't do.

Later she found an amazing 4.5 inch brass Pectoral crucifix that was attached to an amusingly tiny ebony rosary with rather bland hardware.

I saw my chance. Taking apart both the complete ebony rosary and the incomplete rosary, I replaced the bland hardware with the brass hardware and medals. Then I polished up the ebony beads and I had something pretty cool. I grabbed a center medal off another broken rosary that fit in with the mixed brass and silver look of the integrated medals. Then I took a loose filigree crucifix from France that Elwing had sent me to price as a loose item and added it to make a completed rosary.

Once complete I added medals and gave it another cleaning whereupon I discovered that the discolored centermedal was marked "argent" and is actually 800 purity silver. Well, what do you know...

This is what rosary restoration is all about.

-e

Brown Bohemia

I love bohemian glass beads so when I tested my new lightbulbs for my photo setup I grabbed this photo to play with first. It looks pretty good.

The rosary is a silver assembly with milk white core brown faceted bohemian glass beads. The swirl pattern on the crucifix and the shape of the center medal is very art deco. It's a very simple rosary, but sometimes, simple is good.



I took today's pictures while playing "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" in the background. There's nothing cooler than having an exorcism movie named after you. (Though it does get a little weird toward the end when everyone is running around screaming "Emily!") The creepy thing is, I have a reoccuring dream where I can't turn on my lights... Boo!

May 12 of 12

7:00AM The Unibomber Shack
My tiny one room house was called this as a joke the day I moved in. Somehow, it has never lived it down. There are a lot of photos of people in bed looking at their alarm clocks so instead, here is what the shack looks like when I first wake up. If you're thinking to yourself, "hey, that's really cute!" Notice two things. First, you can see all the way through it. Second, have a look at the next picture and see how ghetto my lifestyle really is...

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7:02AM Yes. it really is that small.
It's so small people don't realize that it's a dwelling and so they lean against it and drink beer at 4 in the morning sometimes. That's an alley running behind it and there are skid marks where cars have run into the shack. Plus I have 4 dumpsters! But I've gotten attached to the place and everyone who visits says they wish they had a shack too.

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8:00AM Cats in the bathroom.
I don't know why this is, but there is no greater thrill for my cats than my bathroom after I have just gotten out of the shower. The minute I turn off the water they run in and wait for their chance to hang around in the bathtub. And then once the bathtub is no longer interesting they continue to hang around playing with the bathmat, bringing toys in there, and sitting on the toilet.

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10:30AM Ludicrous Lighting
This is what it looks like when I photograph rosaries. Inside the cube there is a foam core stage that the rosaries are arranged on for photography. One side is blue fabric and the other is white. It was actually difficult to take this picture because the light is so bright that the camera freaks out. I can spend hours with my head stuck inside that little box as it can take up to half an hour to pose and photograph a single rosary.

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4:50PM "Clouds" behind the steeple
Okay, this was supposed to be a picture of the cool cloud formation behind the St. John's steeple before Mass, but the sky turned out completely white. I like going to Mass on Fridays because it is chanted in Latin. Unfortunately though, this Friday, it wasn't. (It probably had something to do with the semester ending.)

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4:55PM The interior of St. Johns Chapel
I really like the way the inside of St. Johns looks. It's ornate without looking over done. The altar used to be an old style Latin Mass high altar but it was changed to work with the new Novus Ordo mass. All of the marble taken from the original high altar was reused elsewhere in the sanctuary.

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5:25PM Not Yet Body and Blood
The "Gifts" waiting on their tiny table to be taken up to the altar. Every thing has a funny Latin name in the Mass. Though the wine is in a "flask", the host wafers are in a "ciborium" and the napkin the priest spreads out to catch any crumbs is called a "corporal". Later on, I helped distribute the Precious Blood to the congregation as a "Eucharistic Minister" and I had a different napkin for catching any spills called a "purificator". (It looks like I've been caught taking pictures, but that guy actually spends more time looking behind him during mass than in front of him. I have no clue why.)

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5:30PM Washing hands
I wanted to take a picture during Mass, but not during a time where anything important was going on so I chose this moment where Monsignuer Swetland is washing his hands in preparation to consecrate the gifts. He's wearing red because it's a feast day for the martyrs Nereus and Achilleus. We got some sad news the other day that Monsigneur is leaving at the end of June. This is one of his last Masses at St. Johns.

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6:00PM The Divine Office for Many
After Mass a small group of us stayed and prayed the Evening Liturgy together. Here Sacristan Mary holds a stack of the chapel's prayer books.

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6:20PM Prayers to the Blessed Virgin
The website I administrate is saying goodbye to one of its members tonight. It's always tough on the site staff and membership when this happens, not to mention for the person leaving. I lit this novena candle and said a rosary that the site would move on in this difficult time and that the member would find happiness in her life. Our candle is the one on the right.

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7:00 My Car
WIth all the church stuff taken care of, it's time to go to fencing at "The Point", Urbana-Champaign's local fencing club. My car is well equipped in case of emergency. I've got a tiny St. Christopher statue from Elwing, a St. Benedict Exocism medal (in case of possession), some holy water (in case of baptism), and an iPod.

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8:10 L U N G E !
It's a good thing he's stepping into my kind of whimpy lunge there. Fencing practice at The Point is always fun. There were only eight of us fencing tonight so we did a round robin thing and fenced each other twice on two different strips.

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BONUS PHOTO
Here is my 13th "bonus" self portrait photo. Me in my dorky white outfit (which is even whiter than normal because I just washed it). I don't quite know what's going on with my hair. It looked fine before I took my mask on and off a couple of times. Don't make fun of it though or I'll poke you with my pointy stick! :-D

The look of things to come

Well, it's been slow going since I got out of the hospital. I found myself with a whole new shipment of rosaries from Europe, plus I still had some left over that had yet to be cleaned, photographed, and listed. I decided to go the long route and instead of just hurrying up and getting some stuff up there, I did a total inventory, moved medals around, made additional repairs with some of the new materials from Europe and in general came up with a giant stack of rosaries that are finished and in the process of being photographed now. I think the work paid off.

Judge for yourself:

Cane glass then and now

These are "cane glass" beads. They are beads that are made by hand by taking thin rods of glass, heating them, joining them together, and then stretching them. The final stretched rods are then cooled and cut into small "beads" and the holes are added. It is a time consuming process and it is one of the reasons cane glass beads are so special - no one bead is the same.

Because of the symmetry of the rosary, it is rare to see a cane glass rosary, especially with modern cane glass which tends to be intensly colorful and variagated. It would be difficult to acheive that symmetry with a modern section of cane glass beads. In the past though, cane glass was much simpler as pigments were harder to come by and the tools weren't as developed.

This rosary is made of very simple cane glass. It is quite old and probably one of the few glass rosaries of its age. The cane glass, as you can see is simple, only one color rod has been stretched, but you can see the way it has been hand cut by the variations in the size of the beads. In addition, the maker added a silver center and ornate crucifix. For the time that this rosary was made, this was an extremely fancy rosary. It was probably made between 1890 and 1900, a time when most rosaries were constructed out of wood. So given the time period, it compares to the large crystal and sterling rosaries viewed elsewhere in this blog.

For the rosary collector with everything

So, you're probably wondering by now, what kind of rosary I actually use to pray with. I mean, given how many rosaries I pass in and out of my possession, you might be curious. If there was any justice in the world I would have some kind of simple wooden rosary that was all worn looking from use. I don't.

I have several rosaries, but this is my favorite and the one that I pray with the most. (The picture is terrible. On an impulse I threw it down on the stage and photographed it.)




The rosary is a "PL" rosary from Quebec similar to this one. It is one of the few rosaries I can't remember purchasing (usually they all have a story) because I didn't see it. I just knew I was getting a sterling silver and jet rosary from Canada with some medals on it. It was while I was cleaning and repairing it that I thought, "This rosary looks familiar..." I looked through my pictures and realized it was an exact copy of my favorite "PL" rosary in black.

At the time I had a different jet and sterling rosary that I thought was my favorite, but over time I started grabbing this one more and more. It was just the perfect length, the perfect weight, and I love the feel of the biconal beads in my fingers. Finally I gave in, retired it from the collection and had it blessed by the priest at my church. (None of my rosaries are blessed since they are bought and sold - it is improper to sell "sacramentals" or blessed objects.)

I do have other rosaries that have significance to me and/or that I use from time to time. For instance during lent I carried my first rosary which is a very simple ebony wood and brass rosary - no medals, nothing shiny, totally lenten. (I had good taste in rosaries when I was eight. It's a wonderful antique.) It's blessed too and so it's not going anywhere either. And then there are a few others that were gifts or have been blessed such as one blessed by Pope Benedict XVI and another that was present during a Marian Apparition in Medjugorie. (The last one makes for an interesting conversation piece at the very least.)

It's a little confusing to others how I have "my rosaries" and "the collection", but as long as it makes sense to me, I guess it works.

Let's get Fancy

Here is you typical deluxe fancy rosary. It is all sterling silver from the crucifix and centermedal to the attached medals to the caps on the beads and even the eye pins. The beads are made of rock crystal so the rosary is very very heavy. It's got all the special features of a fancy heirloom rosary as well such as the sterling silver spacer links (which I just learned can also be called "torsade extenders" - doesn't that sound even fancier!) and an extra silver loop between each bead. The cool thing about a rosary like this is you really know you're praying on it because it weighs you down. It's HEAVY!

The maker of this rosary is RLC even though the crucifix looks a lot like a very common Gloria crucifix. It seems like even with only a few Sterling rosary makers, there are even less designs. I've seen Dean rosaries that look like Gloria rosaries too. The only ones that stand out are LP which just so happen to be my favorites. The center medal is completely unique though and is openwork, which I like. And I love how the sterling stamp is worked into the design on the backside. Very art deco.

The medals are pretty cool too. They are all silver and most of them are signed by their makers. Given that the rosary is most likely from Quebec, I tried to stay with a French theme when deciding what medals to add. There is a hallmarked sterling St. Bernadette of Lourdes medal (signed) and signed French Scapular medal. There is a second large scapular medal that is unsigned, but I think is cool because on one side Mary and Jesus are sitting displaying all sorts of scapulars in their hands. And finally there is a really unusual St. Michael medal that is like three medals in one. On one side there is St. Michael and then on the other side, it is like another scapular medal with a dual image of Jesus and Our Lady of Perpetual Hope.

Yeah.... It's fancy...

Knot all rosaries have beads

So far every rosary on this blog has had beads, but rosaries come in all different flavors and they don't even need to have beads. The rosary pictured is made entirely of twine that has been knotted to create 5 decades with larger knots for the our fathers and finally a crucifix has been added. This is a fairly fancy one in that a different color twine has been used for each decade. It's possible to make much simpler ones with a single strand of the same color twine.


There is a group called The Rosary Army that makes all twine knotted rosaries like these. Their motto is "Make them, pray them, and give them away" and that's exactly what they do. They have members all over the world who make and contribute twine rosaries, then they send them out free to anyone who emails in an asks for one. I think they've given away thousands of rosaries now and taught hundreds how to make them.

The two rosaries pictured were made by Teena, a member of the Rosary Army.