Alaska Ring and Necklace set

Bought this set over 15 years ago. Has a makers mark of 3 clouds with 5 rain drops engraved on the inside. Man told me a local artist made it. Could someone help me on the makers mark…

you can see the mark on inside of ring. It has coral around top and both side. It’s 14 k

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Beautiful ring! That’s the hallmark of Victor Coochwytewa I believe.

Just a quick search brought this up…

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Yes I think you are right. The center is higher. Here’s a picture of Victor’s from Hougart’s book.image

A hallmark is a start but it’s the items themselves that should be stared at long and hard for the probability you’re on the right track. In this case, for example, Victor C did no work in gold, nor a mainstream jewelry-store sort of object (the lock), nor inlay.

This doesn’t look Southwest NA-made. From these photos I can’t tell what the stone material is; maybe spiny oyster. Consider having a trained jeweler take a look.

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I agree; I’ve also seen that “import” hallmark and that was my first thought. Also agree that the padlock, especially, does not look NA to me. Doesn’t keep them from being neat and unique pieces, though! :grinning:

These rain cloud hallmarks have come up repeatedly here, in the Facebook NA jewelry groups, and on ebay incorrectly attributed to Victor Coochwytewa. I think there are several different sources of similar hallmarks. Here’s a previous thread which has a similar but slightly different hallmark which I don’t think is of the same origins as your set:

I’ve also seen at least one item on ebay that seemed to be legitimate NA silverwork by a different NA artist, retroactively stamped with VC’s hallmark to fool collectors who don’t do their homework.

The hallmark you most commonly see for Victor is a wider more stretched-out looking rain cloud with 5 drops all the same height, as shown in Islandmomma’s image from Hougart’s above. An earlier version of his hallmark was not as stretched out but still had all the rain drops the same height:
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And here’s one which I believe may be the same source as yours, although I am not sure:
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Like yours, the hallmark is a taller rain cloud and the rain drops get longer in the center. This picture is from an old ebay listing that was discussed on Facebook. I believe it’s either an import mark, or from a shop in the U.S. that mass-produces.

Agree with @chicfarmer on all except one point, and that’s that Victor Coochwytewa did occasionally work in gold. I know that he at least did gold/silver combination pieces, like those on the cover of the 1979 Arizona Highways issue. And I think that the all gold bracelets in the image on the top of this page are by him as well?

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:face_with_hand_over_mouth:How did I forget Victor’s gold work? Probably because it’s so uncharacteristic. You’re right, of course!

My assessment of the OP’s pieces still stands.