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Gold and red-coral rosary, complete and intact from 1715 Fleet.

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:30,000.00 USD Estimated At:35,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Gold and red-coral rosary, complete and intact  from 1715 Fleet.
All items are genuine unless noted. Most shipwreck coins and artifacts come with a certificate of authenticity (please check the description for each item). By bidding in this auction you understand and agree to the Terms and Conditions posted here.
Gold and red-coral rosary, complete and intact. The chain about 27" long, the cross about 2" x 1-1/2". Few shipwreck artifacts convey the drama of a Spanish wreck like a rosary, for one can just picture the grandees and clergy frantically fingering their rosaries in a flurry of "hail marys" as the ships went down. Intact rosaries like this one are quite rare, as the delicate chain parts often separated. Comprising this piece are 49 spherical beads of red coral on simple gold-wire loops, interspersed with 5 gold beads, with complete crucifix suspended on a simple ring of gold, tiny medallions hanging at the right and left ends (both two-sided, one with Jesus and saint and the other with Mary holding baby Jesus on front and cross with rose behind and S at top on back), INRI at top. Intact barnacles adhere to most of the beads. Remarkably, this piece is nearly identical to an Atocha example from the original Christie's auction of June 1988: Lot 155 in that auction describes the piece as "five decades of coral beads with five fluted paternosters [the gold beads] between." While the present piece has plainer gold beads, its suspended crucifix is more impressive than the "cross with baluster arms" on the Atocha example. Such rosaries were very popular with Spanish royals (like Queen Joanna [Juana la Loca], for example), as the red coral was believed to protect against magic spells, going back to Greek mythology that gave red coral's origin as "the spurts of blood that gushed forth when Medusa's head was cut off by Perseus." As a final note, we would like to point out that the Atocha example sold for $154,000 in 1988. Found on the beach.Recovered from: Spanish 1715 Fleet, east coast of Florida


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