Featured Rough age of rosary please?

Something else from my treasure boxes, this belonged to my grandmother. The beads appear to be wood, and the cross is stamped for Mount Melleray in Ireland. Just curious about the age of it as I never knew her, I was a baby when she died. I'm not sure if it counts as jewellery but it doesn't fit anywhere else either

 

Are you sure those beads are wood? Is there grain if you look close up? Could they be Bakelite?
Nice, I’m not Catholic but I like rosaries.

 

Agree that doesn't look like wood.

Debora

 

I'm not 100% sure no, I can see grain on the two less ornately carved beads near the cross. Some of the decorated ones have lines going around them and some don't

 

Only done a quick search but wonder if they are something like this material?

 

It's a souvenir rosary from mount Melleray Abbey. A place of pilgrimage. It's a community of Cistercian Trappist monks.
http://1260.org/Mary/Apparitions_Melleray/Melleray_Apparitions_Our_Lady_en.htm

 

@KSW yes they are similar. I will investigate further, thank you.

 

Try bog oak. Typical for Irish rosaries. I'd think forties or fifties. Still have my grandmothers' rosaries, both were converts to Catholicism.

 

Thank you, I will check it out. I'm not at all religious but it's lovely having things that were hers.

 

I'm so lapsed it's last century! I keep mine for sentiment.

 

The crucifix looks like the ones made in Schwäbisch Gmünd, southern Germany, in the 19th-early 20th century and inlaid with local bogwood. They were exported to other RC regions.
The wear on the crucifix looks consistent with that age. The beads could be later. And maybe varnished? I have seen quite a few rosaries where the cross was older, maybe added for sentimental reasons.

I'm so lapsed it's MCM. I also have both my grandmothers' rosaries, and my mother's.

 

Just to clarify, the bakelite one is a tesbih, probably Turkish. A different tradition and different prefered materials.

 

...says the back of the cross.

 

Some more photos of the beads, hope these are clearer. The two plainer beads are completely different to the rest, so the cross being added makes sense, maybe these beads were added with it.

 

I think that's bog oak on the beads. I'll defer to aj on the cross!

 

Yes, I believe there are still a few monks in the monastery today

 

Sorry for the confusion, I was just trying to show examples of similar materials that could look like wood.

 

@KSW It's ok I knew what you were trying to show. Still not sure what the beads are made of, I tried heating them by friction and there's no smell, don't feel inclined to plunge them into hot water as it's not that important. I'm happy knowing the cross is probably older and as my grandmother was born in 1904 it's possible that it came into her possession from an older family member.

I will never know for sure, but was just curious