I was just gifted a few pieces that I was wondering if anyone could give me any info on the turquoise or the pieces themselves. The man that gave them to me doesn’t know much about turquoise, but he said his mother acquired these pieces in the 70’s. He said his parents had a traveling native jewelry business. He said these were her most prized pieces that she refused to ever sell and said they were “number 8 Burnham” turquoise that was extremely rare and the jewelry was made from some great artist. That didn’t make much sense to me since (from my limited knowledge of turquoise) those are 2 different mines…? From my research it doesn’t look like either number 8 or Godber-Burnham. The webbing is way tighter than everything I’ve seen from Godber-Burnham. I contacted the Woods and they responded to me that it might look like some of their pieces and sent some examples, but the webbing was not near as tight.
I can’t find any info on the makers mark either. I know it’s really hard to verify anything from pictures, but I was just wondering if anyone had a lead or info? The hallmark on the cuff are the initials “CS”. Some people have suggested Charlie Singer or Cecil Sanders, but the internet doesn’t seem to have much info or examples of work from either. Does anyone have any book recommendations or other resources for info?
I would NEVER sell these pieces, but I am thinking if they are valuable enough I really should get them insured. Does anyone have any appraisal recommendations? I’m in southern CA but willing to travel for someone with a high level of expertise.
These are amazing stones. I would call them Lander Blue until someone proved me wrong. I would send this pic to Bob Brucia at info@nevadagem.com who owns the Lander Blue Mine and see what he says. I did some research on the names given a CS hallmark in hougart’s book and keep coming across the name Carolyn Sandoval who made pieces with leaves.
I saw these when you posted them on Facebook. They are gorgeous. I would take Jason’s advice. Additionally, I would spend some money to have some documentation drawn up about these pieces.
Hi everyone! The other day I made it out to Albuquerque and talked to Joe Dan at the Turquoise Museum. He is a wonderful person and I got some really good information from him. He obviously has an absolute passion for what he does.
According to Joe Dan, both pieces of turquoise in this set are from Red Mountain, and these are perfect examples of the highest quality stone that ever came out of that mine. In his terms, it is the “rarest of the rare”, and it is such high quality, someone who wasn’t honest could list it as Lander Blue and have no problem selling it for Lander prices. He said if him or another turquoise collector were to buy these pieces, they would discard the jewelry as the true value is in the stones. He could give me no information on the maker or jewelry themselves.
I would still like to try to find someone who specializes in Native American jewelry to get another point of view if anyone has any recommendations! I have family in Albuquerque so I do visit them and could take the pieces to anyone in the area.
Also, does anyone have any leads on finding a piece of Red Mountain to have a pendant made to go with this set? It does not have to be this tight of matrix. Just looking for something where the blue would match with some black matrix.
Wow! Beautiful pieces. I would have thought lander. I would not have thought red mountain. That is probably why I don’t run a turquoise museum or write books on it :-).
Thanks for following up and letting us know what you’ve found out. I was very curious as to whether it was lander or not (definitely could have fooled me). Congrats on owning such amazing turquoise!
