Did the Holy Spirit Make it Sterling?

Here are the follow up photos from my April blog entry about a pewter rosary that upon inspection I discovered to be silver:



The unusual crucifix design is what's known as a "Holy Spirt Crucifix". It is the only one I have ever seen "in person".

The hallmark is a triangular hallmark that is quite common on rosaries, but virtually uncatalogued on other types of silver. One of the difficulties with rosaries is that very little has been published about their hallmarks. Silver collectors tend to concentrate on larger pieces such as flatware and other tableware so that jewelry and in particular devotional silver jewelry is virtually undocumented. (I learned this during a weekend trip to our university archives to research Canadian silver hallmarks and discovered that not a single one of the hallmarks on my Canadian rosaries was included in their catalog.)



Seen all together the rosary is a wonderful combination of openwork sterling and sparkling tin cut jet beads. It is not a large or heavy rosary like many of the older sterling rosaries are, but it is definitely a beautiful and mysterious work of art.