A woman I met recently was asking if I could help her friend with identifying the artist who made her stamped bead necklace. She would also like a value since she is considering selling. From what I was told, she purchased it in the Taos area in the sixties. It is 25” and weighs 116grams.
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I think it’s worth about $40 and she should sell it to me. JK, but seriously I really love this. How many mm across are the beads? Looks like they are pretty big if the necklace is 25".
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Not sure. I was also hoping to buy them but that depends on how the price is. There are two other pieces that I’m going to post. A Kachina pendant with turquoise and a cast bracelet with turquoise.
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oh yes …very lovely. Now I still can’t tell…are these beads handmade?
Yes, these would be handmade and hand stamped beads. I think it is actually unusual for machine made beads to be stamped at all. But I’m fairly certain I can see slight variations in the stamping here, another thing to look for.
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Variations in the stamping is Important to look for, I’m glad you brought it up.
I had the same logic regarding machine made beads usually not being stamped, however, Carolyn Pollack’s beads just came to mind. I know her jewelry isn’t native, but I feel like it adds value to the conversation. We know her pieces are manufactured, So it just makes me wonder if there are any other examples of stamped machine made beads out there? Or is this a single instance of this example?
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My question about the hallmark is if it might be a shop. I can’t find it in any of my books or online.
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Thanks for posting this Bree. The beads in that top picture really do look similar to NA handmade beads. I wouldn’t have necessarily known they were manufactured. It can be really hard to tell sometimes! I’m curious to hear then if others know of other examples of stamped, manufactured beads.
Those beads actually look extremely similar to a set I was looking at thinking of purchasing. I’m sorry I don’t have a better picture, but I’ll post the pic I do have. I had assumed these were native handmade, do you think I’m mistaken?
If it makes you feel any better, I once sold a set of Carolyn’s beads as Navajo 
I just didn’t know any better. I was a few years ago, and I know better now, but I still feel so bad about accidentally misrepresenting the item. I do think the flower beads you showed are hers.
Here are the ones I sold. The whole thing was so tarnished and the stamping was so worn, I thought they were the real deal.
I would have thought these were older and native too. How did you find out they were Carolyn Pollack?
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This post was up on the forum a long time ago for a few days, and no one had answered yet. So I got to researching and that’s when I learned about Pollack’s jewelry. I would have sworn these beads were Native too.
This has been a great learning experience. However, I’m still not sure about the necklace I posted. The beads look handmade to me but the hang tag doesn’t seem right? I also don’t know how to date them. All info is appreciated. Thanks
Sorry I kind of hijacked your thread. I tend to agree with your assessment that the beads themselves look nice and like the real deal, but the tag is a little weird and I don’t recognize the mark. Hopefully someone on here that knows more than me can help out a little more.
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The hijack was good. I learned a little more about judging beads.
Hi
It is not uncommon for NA artists to apply the Hallmark tag. It is common on finer beads, sometimes a small round or oval tag is used too. I am sure if this. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean these are Native because of the tag.