I had a few hours to go to an antique store in upstate New York while taking care of my mother and I was excited when I found this cuff. I think it’s old based on the shadowbox, & the look of the leaf or feather motif. The silver workmanship is smooth and precise and the shadowbox appears hand stamped. It’s not signed but does have a faint __925 stamp. It had a serious patina, but I lightly polished it cause I like some shine on my silver. It weighs 37g. Any idea about where it might have been made or by whom? And the era? Any thoughts on the spiderweb turquoise?
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Beautiful cuff.
I cropped and sharpened the area with the markings. I see a couple of faint letters to the side of the numbers.
Maybe someone will recognize them.
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A beautiful cuff!
I may be wrong, but it looks like Chinese turquoise to me.
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I agree with @Stracci on the turquoise, although I really don’t know much about Chinese turquoise.
How old do you mean by “old”? I have several shadowbox pieces which are at least made prior to '91 (due to when I bought them), and I suspect one is more like 70’s -80’s just cause it shows wear, but I wasn’t aware that shadowbox was necessarily older.
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Chinese Turquoise was my first thought also. Can’t decider the number or letters. Interesting style, can’t place it with anything I’ve seen, but sweet little cuff!
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SORRY Fern, accidentally posted to you–this is for @Bluwater
Chinese turquoise, not very old, the 925 stamp suggests non-Native American. The unusual added coils on top of the leaves has me wondering if it’s Asian import. If domestic, still quite unusual!
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Twist wire in the center on top of 1/2 round is typical of Thai manufacture. Native American jewelers would typically use much heavier twist wire and place it in between as opposed to on top of the the 1/2 round on either side.
The shank itself (with the exception of the twist wire) appears to be a casting. The fans on either side, and coiled 1/2 round embellishments don’t look Native American. Have seen a lot of this kind of work out of Bangkok. One of my German chain store clients used to import very similar work from Thailand for sale in his retail stores.
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Great zoom! I thought shadow box jewelry was only vintage, so thanks for the heads up on that. I looked and see that it’s currently used too.
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Great input ~ I know that Native American pieces are stamped “sterling” and not 925 but I learned a lot about this piece! Thank you!
I’ve been collecting a ton of sterling & turquoise jewelry over the last 5 years, some I believe is Native American made, but I’m starting to think I’ll find out more than I thought are not. I’ll be posting more of my finds so we can all learn.
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There was just another discussion about the 925 stamp. You might be interested in that if you haven’t read it yet.
Thanks for the heads-up on the .925 discussion. It helped to clarify that I actually know less than I thought I did (which ain’t much)! But collecting sterling & turquoise, mostly made by Native American artists is a rabbit hole I like going down.
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