rosary workshop - museum - antiques
WINDOW SHOPPING
ROSENKRANZ ALONG THE BAVARIAN/AUSTRIAN BORDER
Bavaria and Austria are both wonderful places to look for old filigree rosaries or rosenkranz.  Schwabisch Gmund (Upper Bavaria), an area famous for silver work, became a great center for the making of Filigree Rosaries.  In the 17th and 18th century, women and children assembled them as a cottage industry.
+
Even though it was Easter vacation when we were there - and the shops were closed - it was fun to  window shop in lower Bavaria near the Austrian border. Snow in the Alps, and a chill in the fresh air, didn't stop our interest in peeking in the windows where religious antiques were displayed with great care. Filigree rosaries were abundant.

~ WINDOW SHOPPING ~

Filigree rosaries of all sizes, colors and shapes ...

... beautiful big antique silver hearts with elegant lacy filigree boarders and richly engraved and appliquéd initials were everywhere.  Each with a history of its own and you have to wonder what they would reveal if they could only talk ...

... Old carved wooden beads, once red - now deep pink with many years of prayers worn into their surface, peek out of an old hand carved wooden box.  A richly faceted blue rosary with a fat gold and silver filigree reliquary box cross suggests prideful ownership.
+
Deeply lacquered paper mache' eggs with carefully cut paper lambs and religious  scenes tucked inside are reminders of Easters past.
+
And a precious Christ Child elegantly adorned with red silk velvet and gold passementerie lies in a bed of elegance ... possibly a gift for a child or part of an antique manger scene ... its history long since lost ... and original owners long since gone.
+

return to
antique rosary museum index   -   what's new