Featured Rosary, please help!

Good evening,
This rosary has been in my jewellery box for some time, can’t remember where from. It might have been my grandmother’s.
I know nothing about it, it looks brown beads, could be wood, could be anything else.
There is a chain that keeps the beads together, looks like metal.
I would like to know what is it made of and how old is it?
I am thinking to give it to my local charity, please stop me if this is something I should keep.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Simona

 

seems quite a nice one, nicer than most i come across anyway, i would keep it

lightened the pics, as its quite hard to see

what does the back of the cross look like ?

 

I bet that’s bog oak.

 

I have quite a few rosaries that I inherited from the aunts and my mother. All kinds of materials. This one is fairly plain compared to some. As Owned said, may be bog oak in which case it might have been brought back from some shrine. I have one that had water from Lourdes inside each bead, long since evaporated.

Impossible to tell from the photos, but is there anything on the center metal piece? Usually it's an image of a Saint or the Sacred Heart or something else. If it's plain, that makes it seem more like an actual "working" rosary and not from a shrine. Brothers and Sisters used plain ones.

 

It's often a Sacred Heart, either of Jesus or Mary. Speaking as a Protestant who's had a lot of rosary bits drop into her lap. I've seen a lot of plain rosaries with wooden beads too; they tend to be older. This could have been someone's daily driver.

 

I’d keep it if it was an inheritance and I had a sentimental attachment to it but Rosaries do sell very well on eBay if you wanted to, especially the older ones

 

I am still undecided what to do with it as I am not waring it, nor do I use it for prayer. It feels unethical of me selling it.
Does anyone here wants it as a gift? In the UK, would be easier to post.
I have scratched some paper with it, there are some brown marks like pencil, @Ownedbybear I wonder if this is a sign that may be bog oak.
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Simona

 

i'd love it simona, since lockdown i never left the door without mine, i've got a carved bone stanhope one that i love

i'm uk and will pay any postage fees of course

and promise not to flog it on of course

 

I hate to say this but a few times I have come across a rosary with pretty beads and made them into necklaces. Once I took off the religious bits they made nice necklaces. In fact, they sold fairly quickly. None of them were special, like I said, just pretty beads.

 

I've been known to repair some, but the ones that are beyond repairing I've redone into other religious jewelry.

 

Please send me your address, I will send it to you on Monday.
Xx

 

If you’re getting brown marks, then bog oak.

and how very kind of you.

 

Yes, looks like brown marks. Thank you for educating me, still learning ❤️Xx

 

@charlie cheswick It looks I missed answering Bev’s question above “ is there anything in the center of the pice?”, are you able to help with a response?
Also, do you think is bog oak or something else?
Thank you.
Xx

 

Hi simona, it has the INRI on the front of the cross

i'm not sure it is bog oak to be honest, i thought that was more harder and darker, but might be wrong

i think maybe rosewood

 

Wood anyway. The brass cross has celluloid on it. This was someone's daily driver, probably.

 

Most Rosaries I've seen have a special saint on the center piece. Here's one example. This was an everyday Rosary. I wonder if yours had something stuck on that's come off. I've never seen a blank one.

 

Later rosaries had more variety, often with references to local places of pilgrimage. Hence the images of saints on some rosaries. Those are not traditional, but may be important to people who feel connected to specific saints.
There are other local variations on the centre piece as well.

The one Simona posted is a very basic, traditional and 'folksy' rosary. It is closer to the rosary as it was originally meant to be. I think the shape of the centre piece could indicate the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

On a traditional rosary the centre piece is related to the 'First Mystery', the Annunciation, so it often has something related to Mary. This is where it gets Catholic, aka complicated:
The Immaculate Heart of Mary refers to the sacred secrets Mary carried in her heart. The Annunciation, or 'First Mystery' is the first secret Mary carried in her heart, so it is the start of the concept of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. That is why the centre piece is often heart shaped, or carries the Mary initial. Sometimes the heart or initial is crowned, a reference to Mary as the Queen of Heaven.

Here is an example, the centre piece of one of my antique Spanish rosaries. It is a silver filigree stylised crowned heart, inside the heart is an M, for Maria: