Can anyone help me with this mystery? Attaching images of cuff and hallmark. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
I found it!!! Ramon A. Delangyawma!!! I’m in shock!
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Thank you. Steve! We must have found this about the same time. I found it in Billie Hougarts book. I’m so thrilled!! Did you see the concho belt hallmark mystery I posted a week or so ago? I would appreciate your insight.
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LoL
i just went back and saw you updated the thread with pictures.
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Anybody else thinking this cuff doesn’t look like his work? 
His hallmark isn’t one listed in this article plus I believe he’s still making jewelry, but…
I know Hopi work occasionally has stones and may not be done in the traditional overlay, but this seems really different. But of course I could be completely off base, since Hougart’s does say he occasionally uses applique.
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@Ziacat I agree. His bio says he’s Hopi/Navajo, so I wonder if this work could be from an era of production before he did Hopi work. Because this isn’t that (and therefore not in league with collectibility for this artist).
I’d like to see where on the cuff this hallmark appears: the picture seems to be of one of the terminals, but if that’s a terminal it’s a fairly strange build.
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@Dbell, while I understand your intent in sharing other examples, eBay, in my opinion, is one of the worst sources to cite due to it’s complete lack of reliability. If you could provide examples from a well regarded and respected gallery, like Shiprock Santa Fe or Medicine Man Gallery, those would carry a much greater amount of weight, in my opinion.
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I agree with you. In reading about his earlier works given his Navajo heritage as well I simply saw the ring similar in design as the cuff. I have read that he practiced this type of artistry before moving to focusing solely on his Hopi heritage.
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OK that’s interesting. All I can say is that some Hopi and other jewelers did produce '70s, Baroque/everything into the stockpot work at some point. But it’s (obviously) not the Hopi jewelry associated with RD, if it’s indeed by him.
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@Dbell I recognize the seller of that ring (and consider him trustworthy), however; I’d personally be leery of the ring’s hallmark and attribution to Ramon A. Dalangyawma. Just my 2 cents worth.
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Good to know. Thank you!
[sorry accidental, obla di obla da]
The closeups are great! This is really nice work. Really nice. The turquoise looks Asian which first appeared in the very early 80s (marketed as “Tibetan” at that time, but actually from China). Some made it over here before then as well. This really looks like 70’s to me.
Looking at the heft, quality, age and expert construction, I’d say you probably have the real article here @Dbell.
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@chicfarmer the build is pretty interesting. If you look at the side of the bracelet shank, you can see it composed of two layers, like a traditional Hopi overlay piece, with the setting lofted above the shank and supported by heavy gauge handmade fans at the top of the bracelet. This has me wondering what is underneath the setting. Perhaps a cut out overlay, or other design underneath the top setting?
Also interesting are the extension tabs at each end of the bracelet. From a silvesmith’s point of view, it looks like the maker may have started out with one bracelet, and at some point decided to use the shank as the basis for a different design. It’s clear the extension tabs were added on to expand the circumference of the bracelet to a larger size. All of this took an exceptionally high level of skill to pull off.
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Dang, this cuff IMO has an awful lot going on.
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I see what you’re saying and wondered myself if that crevasse at center indicated an initial plan for a watch band, the way that leaf at top center looks like it wants to hold something. It certainly had a journey in the making.
And to @Ziacat’s point, skill level aside, the aesthetics are–a lot of a lot. (As we know, the 70s kindly obliged.)
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Shout out to @Dbell and husband Mike, who are most gracious hosts, and invited me up to their beautiful East Texas ranch yesterday. While there I had an opportunity to see this bracelet close up, and boy is it something!
The construction of this piece is truly unique, fun, expert in every way, and clearly a pure creative project by a master craftsman who had a absolute blast experimenting with ideas on the fly and crafting what turned out to be a real piece of technical mastery fashioned from creative imagination and advanced skills. No question this is the work of a real master just having a ball experimenting with ideas milled sheet, and sheet silver left over from other projects. .
One of the really impressive features is the fact that what I thought from the photo were extension tabs soldered on to the end, are actually a complete central 18 gauge 6” long contiguous shank, reinforced with lengths of 28 gauge sheet top and bottom, about 4” long, centered and sweat soldered seamlessly top and bottom.
The lofted side stones are individual settings soldered to wedges of 20 gauge sterling sheet extending up on one end angled toward the center setting, surrounded by expertly crafted hand made leaves. The center setting rests atop two heavy gauge handmade fans placed vertically in the center at each side and meticulously hand soldered into place.
For a silversmith seeing this kind of experimental creativity in such a beautiful and unique piece of work is really a treat!
Once again, tremendous thanks and appreciation to @Dbell and Mike for their terrific hospitality!
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It was our pleasure, Mike. We so enjoyed our time with you and many thanks for your professional assessment of my collection I have been curating for The Velvet Lariat. Who would have ever thought an online forum would be just the place to make a new friend??
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The pleasure was all mine, @Dbell!