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Old rosary, bronze cross with a crucified Christ from the 17th century. With multicolored Murano glass beads (Venice-Italy).
This rosary is in good general condition. It is of high quality, very old (the pearls are also very old, perhaps also 17th century).
Note: some accidents and dirt on the pearls, wear and tear, take a good look at the photos.
In the 12th century, Venice, a prosperous republic, had numerous pearl factories. The latter owe their extraordinary growth to the geographical location offered by Venice: an evolved commercial network, a powerful merchant fleet linking it to the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and Europe. In 1490, the glassmakers were forced to leave Venice for the island of Murano because of the danger the ovens represented for the city. For nearly 50 years, they could not divulge the manufacturing secrets, prisoners of their Island and threatened with death if they tried to migrate. After this transfer, the production of pearls increased considerably thanks to the evolution of techniques. Glassmakers are heavily influenced by the intricate glass objects of Egyptian and Roman antiquity. Glass beads are classified according to their manufacturing technique: winding, stretching, molding, blowing. In coiling, the artisan winds molten glass around a rod like thread on a spool. These beads are individually made. For stretched glass beads, glassmakers use stretched rods with a central hole, from which many identical beads can be made. It is mainly these 2 techniques that are used in Murano.
