Applied mosaic shell pendant

I obtained an inlaid or mosaic applied, shell pendant, which I believe is a man’s ceremonial piece. It is the center piece of a two strand turquoise heishi bead necklace using turquoise lozenge shaped spacers. I think the base shell is a lion’s paw, with a horizontal row of black (jet? onyx?) and white (mop?) squares. From this row to the top, pointed end is a field of inlaid small turquoise. All very smooth and polished. Perhaps Kings Manassa turquoise. There is a set of initials of D.S. written in black ink, under the pointed lip on the concave of the shell.
I have books on hallmarks but have not found any reference to this artist. Any thoughts?

Karne,

Please post some pictures so we can best evaluate your piece :slight_smile:

here are some pictures

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I have been looking through Santo Domingo artists with the last name beginning with an s, can’t come across anything. Several of the Pueblos make jewelry similar to this, once you could get some names it would be a google game. The necklace is nice and it does have a unique style with those stacked long tabs. Good luck, this one is going to be lots of computer screen time.