Navajo vintage has really taken my heart (purchased 5 items this week already), so I’d love to also get this one, and would love to hear your feedback. It is reserved, so I can decide to go for it, or not, depending on your feedback. I guess the price of about $800 is amazing.
Sterling silver, 12 conches + buckle
16 amazing turquoises
On conchos maybe Lone Mountain, Carico Lake, or Orvil Jack would be amazing, doesn’t look like chrysoprase
On buckle Bisbee or Royston? Hopfully not chrysocolla.
Artist: NP - Neal Paquin, Jemez
932g = 30oz, leather belt 130cm = 50"
1980s??, ex Danish collection
Update Nov/12, 2024: this is not Navajo but Laguna/Zuni work, likely from the late 1980s to early 1990s. Contacted Neal to kindly ask for more information.
All of these jewelry items you’re posting about are from an online Danish antiquities/curios dealer. This is certainly unusual, as a source for NA jewelry, especially for a learner. Nice belt.
You are right, I do buy from the mentioned dealer - no, that is not me.
I am new to Navajo jewelry but really fell in love.
My feeling is that this is so beautiful, hard to get in Europe and a great investment, too.
I am not planning to sell the items
My investment strategy is diversification - buy a lot of high-quality items, preferably rare, from many different domains. I do learn a lot, which I really love.
There are some more posts coming up, to keep this forum in happy discussion. I feel we all enjoy it
Is that fine or a bad thing?
I apologize if you already know this, but, if it is by Neal Paquin (if that’s actually the artist, I couldn’t find his hallmark NP in a square like this), Jemez isn’t part of his name, he is from the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico.
Congratulations on the purchase! Getting that belt for $870 is a bit like swooping in and picking up Bitcoin for 6K, at today’s market prices. It’s the buy of a lifetime!
Mis-attribution of names, origin, etc, is pretty common for internet vendors. Fortunately folks here on the forum are pretty good at tracking down hallmarks.
My assumption is that this is an early piece, he forgot to put a hallmark, then decided to put it on a small silver plate and mounted it afterwards - avoiding to ruin the amazing turquoise on the other side.
But I am very new to all this (just good with Google), so this might be a very stupid thought.
@gt75 Hi ~ Just curious ~ are you thinking that all 4 turquoise stones in the buckle are a different type of turquoise than all the other turquoise stones in the concho belt? (I don’t believe the stones in the belt are chrysocolla. Just my opinion.)
I’m a total beginner with turquoise. I own a lot of semi-precious stones and know them quite well, at least I can tell when I have them in my hands. I’m more into raw crystals then into cabochons though.
So I really do not know, the ones on the buckle are at least the most beautiful and most multi-color ones.
Concho stones are mostly brightgreen-coffeebrown.
Ones on the buckle and two more are amazing mix of greens, blues, turquoise and all shades of browns.
No…not Bisbee. Maybe Royston, that would be my best guess. Also reminds me of some Pilot Mountain I’ve seen, although Jason, who is the site admin, has mentioned that Pilot Mountain often is in very thin cuts. Although I am totally guessing, but I would bet money that it’s not Bisbee; Bisbee has a look, and it’s not like this. Usually artists would use the same kind of stone throughout the piece I would think.
I feel the green ones could easily be Pilot Mountain.
For the buckle stones, I feel their colors mix very soft and smooth, while blue-green Pilot Mountain mostly shows very speckled and rough borders between colors.
Great forum, love it.
