Lots of Antique Crucifixes on The Sacred Bead!

 

Fabulous Antique Crucifix with Skull and Crossbones from Europe. This is over 5" tall! If you want to buy an antique crucifix, look on The Sacred Bead- don't wait if you see something you love- everything is definitely one of a kind and when it's gone, it's gone!

 Vintage French Rosary Ring

 Beautiful old cross with Our Virgin of Guadalupe- this is made of silver and glass- just lovely!

 Old gilt brass Byzantine style relic crucifix.

 Incredible antique silver filigree cross!

 Gorgeous vintage Zuni silver and turquoise cross.

 Antique crucifix from France- 1800s!

 Beautiful sliding medal with relic from St. Anne de Beaupre in Canada.

 Sterling St Christopher medal dated 1950 on the reverse. Wonderful old religious medal.

 Antique crucifix from France. Crucifixes with the skull and crossbones are highly sought after.



I am currently working on updating and adding to the antique crucifixes on The Sacred Bead. If you are looking for an antique crucifix or an unusual vintage crucifix be sure to look in the newly expanded "Antique Crucifixes and Medals" section. In addition to antique crucifixes, I am adding antique and vintage religious medals and other religious artifacts. As usual, I seem to prefer items from Europe but I'm trying to find and add all kinds of crucifixes and crosses including some vintage turquoise and silver crosses. Visit The Sacred Bead and enjoy the new antique crucifixes and medals section! If you are looking for the perfect antique rosary for sale or a beautiful antique crucifix, look no further than The Sacred Bead!

Antique Rosaries With Mother of Pearl Beads

 Antique rosaries featuring mother of pearl beads have a delicate beauty as in this antique French MOP and gold gilt rosary from the beginning of the 20th century. It and the other rosaries featured can be found at The Sacred Bead. If you are thinking about buying an antique rosary, The Sacred Bead has one of the most extensive collections of beautiful antique rosaries in all price ranges on the internet!

 Lovely hand-cut mother of pearl beads show the reflective quality of natural shell. Note, both the center and crucifix are of mother of pearl.

 Very similar in style, but note the uniformity of the beads and difference in the style of chain- this is a slightly newer rosary than the one above.

 A true treasure-this beautiful antique rosary has a lovely shell case. Note the darker color of the shell used in this rosary and the unusual squared shape of the beads.

For millennium, people have made beads of shell. Some of the earliest beads found in archeological sites are drilled shell beads. The beauty and hardness of shell made it the perfect material for bead making. Mother of pearl, also called nacre, is from the shells of mollusks and is especially beautiful due to its iridescent reflectivity. The way it almost glows and changes appearance made it especially valued for not only beads but buttons, inlays in musical instruments and furniture and for many other decorative uses.
Cleaning mother of pearl rosaries should be done very carefully and with a minimum of product use. The only really safe thing is a gentle soap, not detergent, something like a bar of pure soap with a soft toothbrush is plenty. Wash your hands before touching mother of pearl or coral beads as the oils, lotions or other products can cause the beads to dull.
Antique rosaries from the 19th century were frequently made using mother of pearl beads. Some of the earlier rosaries used hand-cut beads, each of a slightly different shape and sometimes quite crude in appearance. Towards the end of the century and into the 20th century, most beads were much more uniform in appearance, many of them were machine cut. Sizes range from large beads, some over an inch in size for large processional rosaries, to tiny oval beads used on lovely antique rosaries with gold gilt or sterling silver metalwork. Some of the most beautiful rosaries have mother of pearl crucifixes and centers.

 Beautifully designed crucifix made of mother of pearl and silver above and a fabulous antique mother of pearl and silver, over 4" crucifix below. There were many faux MOP crucifixes made in the mid-20th century made of celluloid- meant to look like these authentic MOP crucifixes.

I will be adding many more antique French rosaries to The Sacred Bead in the coming month and many will have gorgeous antique MOP beads! Mother of pearl is one of my favorite natural materials, and the mysterious way it plays with light makes it a perfect material for meditative prayer.
I love answering questions about antique rosaries and will always answer them! Feel free to email me at The Sacred Bead. Visit the site and email from there please, you'll find a contact form and email links.

Coral Rosaries Antique and Modern

Nothing is more beautiful than a coral rosary with colorful beads from the sea. Long treasured for its health giving and mystical qualities, coral was highly prized during Victorian times and many lovely rosaries from this time, most of French origin, still exist today. Often one of the first gifts for an infant, coral was believed to protect the baby from harm. Although we seem to have lost this view of coral in the modern world, it is still strong in many cultures around the world. Protection from illness and the evil eye and other spiritual harms were its primary function. Now, we tend to love coral simply for its beauty. Shown below are two modern rosaries, using deep red dyed coral, and two lovely antique French rosaries with natural undyed coral.

The modern rosaries are made of sponge and bamboo corals, dyed to give the naturally white coral its color. There is nothing wrong with modern dyed coral, but it is important to be aware of the differences between antique natural coral and modern dyed coral.

Antique rosaries have natural Mediterranean coral beads, they are the natural color and are quite rare. The beauty of the coral is unsurpassed. Highly protected, natural red coral is expensive and precious today, even more so than in the past. Modern beadworkers and rosary makers generally use the dyed coral from the Pacific due to its availability and economy. The prices for modern dyed coral beads are just a fraction of what the price for authentic red coral would be. Because of its scarsity, natural red corals are both protected and products made from them regulated. Each country has laws regarding the importation of natural red coral and other natural corals.

Care should be taken when purchasing a coral rosary- be sure the seller knows if the beads are really coral. Many people are fooled by the glass and celluloid beads that were made to resemble coral. The colors were quite accurately reproduced, made specifically to look like the much more valuable coral. Looking at the beads with a hand lens lets you know if the beads are natural coral. Tiny growth lines are visible inside the coral, this is not visible in glass or celluloid. Many of the antique beads are also hand cut, especially the tiny ones common on rosaries. They will have a rounded, yet not perfect, shape.

The rosaries shown below are all available on The Sacred Bead. Look in the antique sections for authentic antique coral rosaries and in the designer section for modern coral.

The top two pictures are of a lovely modern, strung rosary using a deep red bamboo coral for the impressive beads.

The above two pictures are a modern rosary with beautifully dyed deep orange-red sponge coral.

This gorgeous rosary is a lovely Art Nouveau French rosary with natural Mediterranean coral beads in a lovely salmon color. Note the extra tiny medals on either side of the Pater beads, each has a profile of Jesus on one side and Mary on the other. This is a very rare and beautifully made rosary.  

Below is an early 20th century Art Deco natural coral rosary.