Product Description
22 inch turquoise and silver squash blossom necklace with 3 inch silver and turquoise Naja containing seven bezel set stones. Total weight of the piece is just over a quarter pound. It was likely Navajo made (Technically I can not legally call it Pawn or attribute it as Navajo unless I know which native american individual actually made it and know his/her tribal affiliation and can produce their credentials.) Everything on this necklace is right as rain to be a 1960’s to early 1970’s creation. It has a lovely aged patina, and has not been polished in some time. It is not signed or marked, which was typical when they were made for personal use as opposed to being made to sell into the retail market. The silver tests high for percentage of silver – many times these items were made from scrap or coin silver which is usually at least 80% pure silver. The Turquoise is possibly from the blue diamond mine in Nevada, but could possibly be from Turquoise Mountain Kingman, Arizona, due to the great blue color and black chert matrix. The Navajo were also more likely to use stones cut from local sources as opposed to importing from distant mines. But in the Turquoise trade one can never be sure of the stones origin, unless you mined it yourself. The overall length of the necklace (excluding the Naja) is 21 to 22 inches in length. The 3/8″ round silver spacer beads are possibly handmade by examining the irregularities in them, but they may be earlier factory produced, there are a total of over 110 individual beads used. Each bezel cup is handwrought with twisted sterling rope perimeter. The ten squash blossoms are well matched as for size and shape as well as the stones in each. They range in length from 1.25″ to 1.5″ overall length from the end of the blossom to the back of the rope setting. The center Naja cabochon is the largest stone setting and it is 1″ X 3/4″ the smallest is the stones (1/2″ round) on the bottom of the Naja and which measure about 3/4″ diameter overall. The necklace has a handmade sterling hook and eye closure. One of the things that I love about this piece is that the Turquoise cabochons are not typical, having irregular chert inclusions, stone that are not what one would expect to find in a piece made to be sold as a tourist piece, these “irregularly” included stones were used as the “best” the maker had at their disposal at that time, and he/she was likely not trying to make a “perfect” piece that would fetch a high price from the tourists who were looking for “perfection”, but a necklace to be worn by the maker or by some close friend or family member. I have included lots of pictures that show most every angle, but if you need more or additional information, please do not hesitate to ask.