Does anyone know what the stone is in this Denetdale cuff? Is it spiny oyster, some sort of agate or carnelian? Thanks in advance.
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Welcome to Turquoise People! My guess would be a piece of spiny oyster shell.
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Looks like some type of slag glass, or agate to me. I’m inclined to think slag glass for this piece.
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If it’s red coral, you should be able to see small irregularities and sanding scratches in the softer natural surface. If it’s glass it will be smooth hard and scratches will often have little shatter semi-circles here and there along the scratch. Agate and spiny oyster would also be smooth but likely have some fisher irregularities in a stone that large. If it were agate or oyster I would expect it to be set in more sophisticated silversmith design and fabrication to command the highest price. Hope that helps!
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I always take the approach when trying to identify something to think about what is available. A large majority of Navajo silversmiths will shop in Gallup supply stores. That means they all have access to the same materials. Most of these shops don’t have stones like Lander Blue, Lone Mountain Turquoise, or Bisbee. Instead they are stocked with Kingman and not so many years back a bunch of Chinese. They will also have coral and spiny oyster, along with a handful of other stones from around the world.
When it comes to this bracelet we don’t think of it being coral because the stone is just to big. You just don’t find coral this size and if you did it would be very expensive. So that leaves you thinking spiny oyster because of how available it is in this area.
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Not coral and this seems to be rather typical of Denetdale’s style. Possibly agate like mmrogers suggested but I’m inclined to agree with Jason on spiny oyster. Mine all have some color shading, even the very dark purple Kirk Smith set. All of my orange has quite noticeable color shading.