Hello guys,
I have purchased some cool new Navajo vintage stuff for quite a fair price, and would love to hear your feedback.
My questions to you experts
Thanks a lot everyone.
Gorgeous cuff. I am not terribly familiar with Carico Lake Turquoise, but I would have guessed Chinese turquoise on this stone. Did the seller tell you it was Carico Lake?
Why do you think it’s made by Thomas, and “mid century”? Is there a hallmark, provenance, or is this a sellers representation? Agree with @Ziacat. This looks like Chinese material to me.
Thanks!
Sorry, forgot the hallmark picture. It is Thomas Nez.
The problem with just googling it, is that it’s going to give you all kinds of random stuff off of Etsy and eBay that more often than not are far from accurate. Websites of well-known good stores like Perry Null and Durango Silver are going to be much more accurate.
This is from Thomas, and was sold on rubylane.com, but the page is no more there. Also couldn’t convince Google to show me the page from its history/cache.
And the stone here on Durango looks very similar. Carico.
This is created from most likely his son. Carico. Link corrected just now.
But maybe you are right with Chinese, just I couldn’t find similar stones yet.
I see the similarities, but what’s throwing me off is the black in the matrix. I’m not used to seeing it in the Carico Lake I have looked at. And I am not familiar with the different Chinese mines, but there is just something about this stone that doesn’t quite look like American turquoise. But I am no expert! And whatever it is, it’s a beautiful cuff for sure. Hopefully some others on here will opine.
Carico Lake can have dark blue web, here are some great examples:
The first two of these look very much like Thomas Nez art.
At pueblodirect.com, they also state Carico Lake can have yellow or dark blue “water” webbing.
Also I was reading that some miners/artists have used shoe polish on the stones to create a darker web.
Would love to contact his son if he can ask his father 
You can contact a lot of artists these days on Facebook. They started joining some of the private groups during COVID when their other venues were closed. I don’t believe I own anything by Thomas but I do have several pieces by Leonard. I hope you are able to get a direct answer from him about the turquoise.
I am also more inclined to think Chinese turquoise. I see the comparison you were making with the Durango turquoise examples but they don’t have the same all over pattern of black matrix.
I recently bought a set directly from the artist. He used high grade turquoise and bought this directly from Ernie Monongya.(sp) Mine doesn’t have the blue but does show the different color matrix.
My understanding is shoe polish is mostly used with Kingman. Maybe also SB, but I’m not sure on that.
I don’t think Sleeping Beauty but I know it was common practice with Kingman in the 70’s era. I don’t think it is still in practice. Techniques have progressed since then.
That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure. I’ve got one ring that I’m pretty sure they did that with (and now some of it’s wearing off and you can see the white), but I bought it pawn probably a couple decades ago.
Love your ring and cuff!
That’s a great looking cuff & gorgeous turquoise cab! I also did some online research (not on Etsy/Ebay) and saw high-end Carico Lake turquoise that looks similar to yours. To me, those cabs showed basically 2 color areas - spring green & sky blue. With 1 color shifting into the other as opposed to an overall webbing in the stone. The matrix in those cabs looks brown - yours appears black. My guess is that the turquoise in this cuff may be Sky Horse turquoise from the Hubei province in China. (I have 1 ring with Sky Horse turquoise.) With all that said, without provenance for the turquoise it boils down to guesswork, imo.
Impressive piece. It doesn’t look mid-century, (I think you can rule that out) and has some unusual features in that the bracelet shank is sand cast rather than fabricated, as are the decorative appliqués on the side. The use of very heavy gauge (12 or 14 gauge) sheet for backplate. The individually stamped apliques used in this fashion punctuated with large stamped shot around the stone is also uncommon. The twisted square wire element around the stone is very nice, but I’m a little surprised to see serrated bezel used. Stylistically one would expect to see a simple plain bezel used. I’m going to say probably 80s through 90s in terms of creation period with big homage to harvey era jewelry in terms of the elements used. Again, very beautiful and unusual piece!
ETA: Matrix looks natural, not dyed, or colored in any way, and is characteristic of high quality Chinese material. I believe this is high grade Chinese turquoise, possibly cut by Mike Carter’s shop.
Thanks for so much information, makes the piece even more valuable in my heart. Happy I got it for sure. Looking forward to close my big order and open the box.
Have asked around and got an answer. How cool is that?
“Hi, Thanks for contacting us. We haven’t seen Thomas Nez for about 8 years, and the phone number I have for him isn’t current unfortunately. It’s a beautiful bracelet you have. It’s definitely not Carico Lake turquoise. My educated guess would be natural Chinese turquoise. It’s a nice stone, hope you enjoy that beautiful bracelet.”
Have sent back a big thank you.
Thanks for the update!
Ya got me there, I don’t know Chinese turquoise mines at all.
In any case a wonderful bracelet and stone.
