Posted 9 years ago
KCasey59
(2 items)
A wonderful old Navajo, fine silver cuff bracelet. This is most definatly a pre-Harvey / Railroad piece, probably 1870-1890. A heavy 120 grams, tested fine silver. Primitive hand forming marks, tooling, hand dripped beads. Fine Kingman Turquoise and red coral cabs, with heavy bezel settings. Maker's mark looks line a sun with two crossed arrows. I have a lot of old Native American Jewelry. This is the oldest and best piece I've ever come across. You cannot bend this, it's more than 3/32 thick!
Does anyone have any knowledge, expertise about this piece or it's mark?
Its a very nice piece and I really like it, but it was made to look old. There are *no* native American pieces with signatures or marks from the era you mentioned. In fact, it was the Fred Harvey company that suggested they start marking their pieces because the white people liked that.
By 1870 they had just barely learned silver-smithing from the Spaniards, and they weren't using coral like this at that time. This piece is very nice and I love how heavy it is, and I love ingot balls, but it was made to look old, and was created most likely between the 1950's-70's, as it is very characteristic of the pieces made during that time frame.
Just by the fact that it is marked is a surefire sign that it is not pre-1900. That are absolutely no native American pieces that were marked before Harvey got involved. The natives were humble, and didn't even think to sign their work. It was suggested to them by Harvey to appease tourists along his railroad.
Great piece nonetheless! I love it