More photos: REALonline

Over on the Paternosters mailing list, fellow historical-rosary enthusiast Marion McNealy recently alerted me to a source for more online photos.

She writes, "I've been browsing around in REALonline, the Austrian equivalent to Bildindex.de, only it's much better indexed and searchable. It mainly has artworks, most in color, but it does have a few objects. I *love* this site!"

Marion has also very helpfully written a user's guide to REALonline for those of us whose German isn't as good as hers. :) Thanks, Marion!

The Austrian version of the German language is a bit different, so the best keyword in searching for rosaries turns out to be "Betschnur" (literally "prayer-string") rather than "rosenkranz" ("rose-wreath") which is the most useful word on the Bildindex site in Germany.

A search on "Betschnur" turns up a few actual rosaries, indexed under "Materielle Objekte" in the catalog. There are many other references to rosaries in paintings, sculptures and woodcuts, which I've only just begun to explore.

Here, for instance, is a color photo of the small rosary I used as the inspiration for my German horn beads. I knew the description said it was "blue-green" but I certainly didn't expect this color!