I’ve had this cuff for a long time. When I wear it I tie a leather strap to the rungs to help keep it in place. It is super heavy, built sturdy and the little serrated edges tend to get caught on fabric but I just love it so much and have always felt such a connection to it. It has some pyrite? in places and a bright blue color. I’ve always wondered what kind of turquoise it might be? Who made it? It has no markings at all on it. How old it is? And what it might be worth? I didn’t pay that much for it and could never bear to sell it but I sure am curious why such a substantial piece like this wouldn’t have any markings as to who created it? The bezel is 3 5/8" height x 2 1/2" wide. Any info you could share would be awesome! Thanks, O
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Lovely! Maybe it was old pawn. What a treasure.
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I wouldn’t say old pawn without a pawn tag. I have a number of pieces without hallmarks; most prob from the 70’s, but a couple from the 50-60’s.
It’s got quite the rock! You could do some weightlifting with that 
And I’m loving the silver work. Morenci and Kingman are known to have pyrite, and Kingman is the most common American turquoise, so 
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I was wondering about the Old Pawn thing too. Thank you!
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It is a big ole chunk of turquoise! my wrists are thinner and I have to tie a stop to it to keep it up right as it can be top heavy! lol
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Not to be a pain or anything, but I don’t understand why there’s this thought that just because something’s older it’s “old pawn.” Pawn has actual meaning - it has to have been pawned (and be QUITE old to be true old pawn). I have numerous unsigned pieces that I just call older (or oldish). There’s no way of knowing if it was ever pawned without a pawn ticket. The purist in me gets a bit frustrated seeing how much that term is thrown around online. Here’s an interesting thread on that topic. “OldPawn” Clarification & Definition Needed
Now it is possible that maybe somewhere along the line this piece was pawned. But something can be a beautiful older piece without ever having been pawned. I think it’s become a marketing term that means nothing anymore, unless you’re buying from legitimate traders. I even have a number of pawn tickets from some of my items, and they’re not “old pawn;” they were just pawned.
Sorry, I got up on my soapbox a bit 
And hopefully someone on here with more knowledge about how to tell how old something is will come on and comment about the age of your cuff. I don’t know when it became normal practice to hallmark pieces (70’s - 80’s maybe?).
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Right on @Ziacat . My 2 cents worth: Best to just let it go as I have. With exception of verifiable pieces, I’ve accepted that for the most part it’s just part of the marketing dog & pony show with many sellers to market items as older and sell at higher prices. I see the same with Fred Harvey era pieces.
Good article @Steve . Although much of the earlier jewelry was likely pawned, it may be spitting hairs but the sellers in most cases have no tangible evidence. IMHO most should be classified as antique or simply vintage. And as Ziacat points out, newer items are still being pawned. Does that add a premium to those pieces?
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@StevesTrail, I agree with you except for one minor difference. If you buy from a legitimate trader, I believe you can know that your pawn tickets are for real, but I probably would completely question it online. I have quite a few pawn tickets from places like Toby Turpen (now Perry Null) that I 100% believe are legit. What’s funny, is that I have about seven items that are definitely pawn, but I have no pawn ticket. I bought them at Four Winds Traders in Flag, now closed of course, that was ONLY a pawn shop, and dealt almost exclusively with the local Native Americans. But they didn’t call any of their items old pawn.
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I often used to look for pawn jewelry out west (when I could know it was pawn). I was drawn to it, because it often had an older look, even if it wasn’t truly old. Back then I also used to find that I could get better pieces for my money than if I bought new. It wasn’t a hard and fast rule for me, and unfortunately so many of those places are closed now.
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I will read the article you tagged here. Thank you for that! There was definitely no pawn ticket with this cuff when I purchased it 20 years ago. I have seen the term used a lot and really wasn’t quite clear exactly what it meant. It was just a beauty and I fell in love with it.
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This is awesome info. Thank you so much for taking the time to find it!
You should love it! Now I just hope someone will come on that has more knowledge in dating pieces than I do; I’m not particularly good at that.
I only learned about what pawn jewelry was because I have traveled a lot in the southwest, and done most of my shopping out there. We also have a fabulous Western Art Museum a couple hours south of me, and years ago they used to have traders come in from several great southwestern shops/trading posts to sell some of their pawn inventory, and I bought quite a few pieces that came with their tickets from them.
If I had to guess on what mine your stone is from, I would probably guess Kingman. But then it seems as though I always say that…
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Wow! That is so interesting! What a great opportunity you had to purchase those pieces directly from the traders themselves!
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how long? rough date you purchased
from where? what part of the world were you in when you found it
from who? garage sale, estate sale, rummage sale, trading post
any info you can share may add some clues for us to dig deeper
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It was! There’s still a lot of them out there if you ever get out to the southwest. Unfortunately the internet, and I believe covid, has caused a lot of them to shut. And many of the original owners probably have retired with no one to take over their businesses. I was fortunate in the early to mid-90’s to stumble in some stores where the owners loved to talk. I learned so much from them.
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I purchased it around 1994. It came from a small vintage clothing shop in the valley in Southern California. The shop is no longer there.
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The closest I get to this is wearing (mostly vintage-but-not-antique) pieces on my old paw!
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I only mentioned old pawn sort of tongue in cheek since it is such a huge piece that one could get a lot of credit $ for something like that. I don’t think people pawned small items,
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I see, gotcha. But they did pawn smaller items. I bought two rings back in the 90’s from the pawn shop in Flag. Each one was only $25 (and the one says Bisbee turquoise on the receipt! Imagine that ). And I have four rings with pawn tickets from Toby Turpens (again bought them in the 90’s); all of them were anywhere from 40 to 60 bucks.
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