Getting Started Collecting Antique

Collecting antique and vintage rosaries is a fine way to invest your money in living pieces of history. Besides the material value, you are preserving well loved spiritual treasures after the owners have gone to their reward. Starting out can be a bit bewildering, as the information about these items is scarce at best.Sinceyou can get started with very little money,you are not risking much, but there really are a lot of choices.Here's a little help to get you started:
Types: There are two basic types of rosaries, the string rosary and the chain rosary. The string rosary is much easier to make, with the beads being strung or knotted onto cords. The chain rosary is the more gemon and harder to make type, with each bead being wired to the next. Generally speaking, chain rosaries are worth more than strung rosaries, unless antique. They are further classified by use, with the Dominican rosary being most gemon. The Dominican rosary has 59 beads, and is what most people mean when they say a "rosary". Chaplets are rosaries said for a special purpose, and have many different bead counts. They may or may not have a center medal, and often have a medal instead of a crucifix.
Materials: Most gemonly, rosaries are made of silver (sterling or plate), gold, gold filled, gold plate, silver plate, Italian or oxidized silver, wood, aluminum, and plastic. Less gemonly, you will see bone, ivory, coral, stone, and needlework. Glass is the most gemon type of material used for beads, followed by wood. Stone, plastics, coral, bone, seeds, teeth, nuts, are some examples of other imaginative beads. My favorite beads are made from crushed and pressed rose petals. Materials can help to determine age. The use of brass in a rosaryusually tells you that an item is at least vintage, and possibly antique, especially when used with a stone bead material, such as amethyst or garnet. Aluminum was very popular with religious artists from 1890s, though the 1920s, because of the way fine detail could be cast. May of the very oldest rosaries and medalsare aluminum.The way the geponents were manufactured, as with pressed glass beads, can also be helpful. Pressed glass beads of certain typeswere not made after the early 1950s, for example.
Markings: Markings can be very helpful, 800 silver, for example was generally used before the 1940s, so if a rosary crucifix is marked 800, generally speaking, you can know it is antique. 925, is a fairly modern marking, so you may see a vintage item bearing this marking, but not an antique. Sterling antiquesbear the word sterling if marked at all.The word "silver" is another old marking, and usually refers to pure silver. Items made with pure silver are very soft and wear easily. The custom of marking jewelry (other than an artist occasionally signing a piece)only became popular in the 20th century, so it is really the absence of all markings that verifies that a piece is truly antique.
Construction: Rosary construction methods have evolved considerable over the years. Modern jewelry findings, things like, eye pins, head pins, andprefabricated chain were not available for early artists, and won't be present on the oldestrosaries. Center medals only became popular after the 1880s and the earliest ones we would consider upside down. Inverted ones bearing Marian monograms were the first. Early crucifixes and medals have mold imperfections, and won't always be symmetrical. Antique chain work was often made from S hooks, one link at a time. The addition of a rosary bead, like the carved bone skulls popular with Nuns in the 1800s, is another helpful factor.
Style and Condition: The style of a rosary can tell you a great deal about a piece. Art deco styling for example is a wonderful indicator of antiquity. The aforementioned lack of a center medal is another. Certain center medals and crucifixes were popular during certain decades, as were certain types of chain. Fancy Italian glass rosaries were wildly popular in the 1940s, slag glass, Czechoslovakian glass, pressed glass beads of all types. The least helpful factor in determining the age of a rosaryis condition. A well cared for antique may look like it is new, while something purchased last week and given and antiqued can look ancient. Don't let the condition fool you.
Too much to learn? Not really, bid on a few, and you will soon find that it is simply a matter of paying attention to the details.So far as the antique market goes, rosaries are incredibly cheap. Buying them is just like putting money in the bank, as they will only increase in value over the years. Which ones should you collect?In the end, the most important factor to all rosary collectors is simply preference. Do you like it? A rosary should speak to your heart. Whether its carved bone, or Czech glass that does it doesn't matter. Follow your heart. That's where your treasure is.