I saw this cool looking copper pendant in a vintage jewelry shop. Something to go with all the random copper bracelets I seem to find. What type of stone is it? There are lots of clues on the back. Is Copper Queen a shop, a company? Who’s Geoff? Any idea what decade it might be from? Hoping some of you out in AZ may have seen more of these than little ol’ me in the Midwest. Thanks in advance for your sleuthing!
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Google says he was Geoff Cook and had a kiosk in the Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee. I don’t know what the stone is or the era, but I bet searching would reveal more.
https://bluebisbeeturquoise.com/product/blue-bisbee-turquoise/
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@GreenRock Haha, really not a lot more than figuring out likely keywords to start a search. I tried “Geoff Bisbee jewelry” and got hits. Good luck with more detective work! Interesting pendant.
I have a brother in law who lives waaaaaay west and north in the UP of MI. The town he lives in has a fabulous mineral museum located on the campus of Michigan Tech. The UP was known for its copper mining until mining became cheaper in places like AZ. There is a fascinating National Historic Park there which encompasses many many sites scattered all over the area. My husband enjoys rock shops, so we both found this museum really interesting. Not only was all the copper pretty cool, they had a stupendous collection of rocks and minerals. I was unaware of all the different rocks found in the Bisbee area.
Your copper pendant jogged my memory of this. I mostly wear silver (never gold, not particularly fond of it), but I have been buying some copper pieces. So seeing first hand how much northern MI was built on the copper industry was interesting.
We visited Bisbee and went into the Copper Queen. Cool old hotel. I have no idea what your stone is (love the colors in it), but I bet they had one of them at the MI museum!
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I mainly work in Sterling, Brass and Copper. Here is a picture of one of my pendants that has a stone that reminds me of the one you showed. The other pendant is a picture agate. One of the two cuffs (not the agate) also has an interesting stone, not turquoise but interesting, it reminds me of Nasturtiums.
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The last one looks like Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper.
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yes, poppy jasper. I still can’t remember the name of the brown ones with circles in the cuff. LOL
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@DHT I’m guessing that your stone may be Cuprite which is an ore of copper as well. You can search google for “cuprite cabochons” and a lot of the images resembled your piece.
Enjoy
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I have several stamped and repossessed copper cuffs, but this is the only one that includes turquoise. I’m sure it’s a Navajo tourist piece, but has a hallmark I don’t recognize. I can’t research it right now since I don’t have access to my library of resource books. Any thoughts?
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And the winner is…@orbitorange!!! It kinda looked familiar but couldn’t place it. I have another Bell trading post cuff, but haven’t looked at it for quite awhile…Thx again!
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I dunno, but I like it!
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Here’s a couple I have. The cuff was made by a Cherokee gentleman who was making jewelry at a store we visited near Smoky Mountain National Park. It’s copper, nickel silver (which was told to me when I bought it), and lined with leather. It was fun watching him work.
The other is a little pendant that I bought in Nainamo, BC. It’s made by a Native Canadian, but without pulling out my receipts, I can’t remember which tribe.
It’s pretty cool, because it’s a raven head and also a whale tail.
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Your cuff is really nice, and looks fairly heavy. Always wonderful to purchase from the artist!
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The left one could be Brazilian Agate.
The right one is Turritella fossil shell.
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yes, Bell Trading
Lovely cuff!
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Thank you, I’ll do just that. I had a box of about 40 finished cabs, and only knew the fairly obvious ones.
DHT
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@Blackturtlehawk Thank you for your insight! I’ve never even heard of cuprite before. That could be it because the color of the stone has both red and almost a deep purple tone with what seems to be a hint of copper dust mixed in. It’s also fairly heavy for it’s size. Cuprite even comes in crystal forms or earthy forms (which more represent my pendant). I love this forum and all the nuggets of knowledge that come unearthed here!
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@GreenRock Your welcome!
Identifying other minerals I’m usually better at (most of the times) but identifying turquoise is what led me here because it’s a mind F! 
but in a good way!!
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