Hello!
I would like to purchase a beautiful cuff. The seller claims it was made by a Zuni artist. I am attaching the photos for your review.
Could someone, please, confirm that what the seller is saying is true. Also, is the price of $398 too low for a piece this beautiful plus really original?
Thank you so much in advance!!
This style of bracelet can be commonly found as it was a very popular style. While there are some beautiful examples that are handmade by native artists with natural turquoise, they were more commonly machine manufactured for the tourist trade, marketed to tourists that didnāt know the difference or didnāt care. Thatās what we have here. When you look closely at the construction, you can see that it was all cast as a single piece. The āstampingā was cast as part of the design and doesnāt show the variation of hand stamping. In addition these very commonly used a compressed composite stone instead of genuine turquoise, composed of either turquoise powder (waste from cutting stones) or dyed powder from another stone, compressed and glued together. That āturquoiseā has a completely uniform and slightly grainy appearance without any matrix at all. Although these are not the greatest pictures of the turquoise in this cuff, it looks to be made with composite stones. If I were you I would pass on this cuff at that price.
One more thing: the back (and the terminal ends) do show some evidence of soldering. Two machine cast halves consisting of three rows each were soldered together. So technically not cast as a single piece as I said above.
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I thought a comparison might be helpful. I bought a three row cuff very similar to the one you are looking at when I was new to collecting. Later I acquired a genuine Zuni hand made single row cuff. In the pictures, you can notice several differences:
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The turquoise is composite in the mass produced cuff. Notice the uniform color and slightly granular appearance. In the hand made cuff you can see slight variations, small bits of matrix, and smooth even color. They are also rectangular cut. In my experience I have yet to see fake stones in this style of bracelet that are rectangular cut.
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If you look at the backs you can get a better clue as to construction. In particular, you can see that the silver ādropsā were all individually hand soldered in the genuine cuff. In the mass produced one they are completely continuous, indicating that it was all cast as one. If the genuine one were composed of multiple rows we would see evidence of those rows bring soldered together as well.
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The stamping. The genuine cuff is hand stamped, where the mass produced cuff is not actually stamped but has machine cast designs.
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Itās small, but if you can see the bezels, you will notice there is slight variation in the cut of the zig zags in the single row cuff, indicating they are handmade bezels. The manufactured cuff has prepurchased machine cut bezels.
Hope this helps! I thought I was getting a good deal on the three row cuff at the time and now consider it a slightly expensive learning experience.
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It is always difficult to tell exactly what you have from an image. Maybe it is handmade, but you should be a little nervous about the sellerās pitch. We have Fred Harvey and Zuni artists. The seller claims that the bracelet is 70 to 90 years old, which would make you expect a little different look, maybe not so sharp. It is a good looking bracelet and definitely a popular style.
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Hi Dzvana,
I second what Orbit Orange wrote above.
To address your specific questions about its price and the honesty of description: the price is certainly not low, and the description of the stones is incorrect, whether by accident of (lack of) knowledge or otherwise. This is composite material, not natural turquoise. For a bracelet of this type, the smart money is for hand fabrication and natural materials.
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Iām reviewing older posts while riding in a car on our way home from a wonderful trip to New Mexico and Arizona. I apologize for the quality of these photos (taken against my leg & .hatš), I just purchased this great old authentic Zuni 6 row square petite point cuff and thought Iād add it to the mix. It demonstrates the individual tiny silver drops, color variation and hand made bezels pointed out by @OrbitOrange. Before too long Iāll post a better picture of this piece, along with other vintage pieces I picked up. The tiny handmade sawtooth bezels on these great old pieces just blows my mind!
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For posterities sake. Completely agree with @OrbitOrange assessment. The bracelet in the originating post is not Harvey era, machine die stamped shank, template cut (probably composite block) stones. Some hand assembly. Likely Asian in origin. Still an attractive piece, but a prime example of fraudulent, deceptive representation.
ETA: Looking at the photos again, itās apparent that the settings are likely machine made bezel cups outfitted with a center post on the back, which plugs into a pre-drilled hole in the shank and is then attached using paste solder. Looking at it as a metals fabricator, itās a pretty slick system!
There must be hundreds and hundreds of identical bracelets still in circulation.
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Really beautiful piece @Bmpdvm!
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Gorgeous cuff @Bmpdvm ! I love these old Zuni row cuffs and would love to have a multi-row one. Yours has the rectangular stones, too, which I mentioned above and prefer. Do you mind sharing where you found it? I canāt wait to see what else you came up with!
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I found it at Perry Null in Gallup. We stopped there on our way to La Posada from Santa Fe. They had a few other great vintage (1940ish) silver pieces (tobacco canteen, S&P) that I picked up. You never know what youāll find there. I had a real nice 3 row Zuni square row cuff that I sold some time agoā¦ been kicking myself ever since, so I was meant to find this oneš.
I also found some other great vintage jewelry on this trip; it was an expensive, but productive trip!
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Nice bracelet @Bmpdvm . A lot of work went into that piece.
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Beautiful cuff. I love the variations in the turquoise. Looking forward to seeing what else followed you home.
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Absolutely beautiful cuff. It has that color variation/change that I love in the stones. I bet it looks amazing on! I have got to get to Perry Null next time Iām out there.
I also like your Zia pin(?) on your hat. It looks a lot like a Robert Yellowhorse ring I bought in ABQ.
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Beautiful cuff @Bmpdvm !
We need wrist shots!
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Thanks @Ziacatā¦ the cuff just fit me perfectly, and so comfortableā¦ I know youāve likely found those special pieces also; just couldnāt pass it upš.
Great ring, I love the Zia sun symbol; yours is especially nice in Coral! Mine is just a stick pin and was a gift from a wholesaler I buy from in Albuquerque. I just checked and itās also byRobert Yellowhorse; evidently he makes a varietyš.
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Thatās too funny! Both by him. There were a bunch of his rings for sale at Palms Trading Post. The owner told me Mr. Yellowhorse had just brought them in minutes before I got there. Mine is actually Spiny Oyster.
Oh I know about finding the perfect piece; happened just this past April 
Looking forward to seeing more of your haul!
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Oh, somehow It looked like coral to me, but Spiney is equally as great!
I just got home and am pretty poopedā¦.but Iāll definitely share some of my finds. As you know, itās always fun to share things we love with like minded souls!
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