Hi there, I recently bought this old onyx cuff. I thought it was pretty. When I looked with my magnifying glass I noticed it has YAZZIE engraved on the back in teeny tiny letters. I held the 10x magnifier in front of the camera lens to take the attached photo. Also I don’t think the stone is onyx as it appears very dark greenish and sparkly in the sunlight. Any guesses as to who made it and what the stone is? I’ve looked at Artamerindien and Hallmarks of SW - nothing. Thanks
Just too many Yazzie’s out there! I understand. Is that all it says? No other letters? The stone looks like The Mexican Obsidian used in alot of the Taxco sterling jewelry. It could be a Mexican piece I am guessing.
My first post ever on this forum was about a mystery Yazzie cuff. You can look it here if you would like to:
I sent an email to Kevin Yazzie, who is well known for his tufa casts. I knew my bracelet wasn’t by him, but I thought he might be able to point me in the right direction. He affirmed me that it wasn’t his, but it could possibly be that of a relative’s. He also re- affirmed that sometimes, owners of jewery inscribed their names onto it. Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help, but I thought it was cool that there’s someone else in the same boat as me!
Cool - thanks guys! It just says Yazzie and the Y has a slant line attached to it at the top like their hand slipped at the start or it could have been intentional.
I started searching “Yazzie” on several online sites, thinking, “How hard can this be? Someone is bound to have made something that resembles the onyx piece.”
Well … I have a theory now, and it’s that when every Yazzie child is born in the U.S., someone places a piece of turquoise in the crib, and that by kindergarten, they’re expected to have turned out at least one completely finished cuff. Even the Yazzies who would prefer to become firefighters, school teachers, stockbrokers and bond salesmen, ranchers, clerks in the civil service, senators, swimming instructors, etc. What else would account for so much jewelry signed “Yazzie” or “Y” or some combination of initials ending with a “Y”?
Nevertheless, I will continue to browse, because by trying to help people here, I end up educating myself. I can’t believe how much I have learned since I first began posting here. (And also, sadly, how much money I have spent!)
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Thanks guys for the help. It sparkles in the sun, and scratches on it are metallic silver…which had me questioning the stone. Anyway thinking I may put it back out there and sell it since it is way too big for me.
Well, the bad news is that I let this go for under a hundred bucks because I was never going to be able to wear it. The very next day I saw on ebay that someone had a pendant and it showed the same writing with initial L. They were calling it Lee Yazzie - doesn’t look like any of his stuff where he stamps his full name. I saw in a mention that Lee did sign his early work LY with an engraver. Photo is a screenshot from eBay of the turquoise pendant that has the exact same scallops. I don’t know if person verified it was really made by Lee. Definitely L…there are a few L Yazzies.
