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Gold and red-coral rosary, intact, ex-1715 Fleet.

Currency:USD Category:Artifacts / Shipwreck Artifacts Start Price:24,000.00 USD Estimated At:30,000.00 - 60,000.00 USD
Gold and red-coral rosary, intact, ex-1715 Fleet.
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This item SOLD at 2022 May 05 @ 21:29UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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Gold and red-coral rosary, intact, ex-1715 Fleet. 56.08 grams total, about 34" long. A most impressive religious jewel, with all the coral and gold beads intact (a few with small barnacles still attached), very similar to the specimen we offered in Sedwick Auction 16 (same beach find) but with a few more coral beads (53 in all, being five "decades" around the neck and three beads down to the cross) in addition to the 5 gold beads (known as "paternosters") and with slightly different crucifix, this one with 1-3/4" flat cross surmounted with separately cast Jesus figure and engraved with INRI at top and the skull and crossbones of Golgotha at bottom (the backside plain), integrated loop at top. Red coral was a popular constituent of rosaries as it 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." From the 1715 Fleet, with photo-certificate and 2010 appraisal for $168,000.