This item was found amongst my late mother-in-law’s jewelry.
She was from the Isleta Pueblo here in NM. She owned a lot of turquoise jewelry, but none of it was good quality, which was disappointing.
I have no idea where she would have gotten this thing, perhaps from a family member, who knows.
She once said her sister used to make jewelry outside on a tree stump.
I don’t think this piece is very old. 1960s-80s? Based on the more modern typeface on the thin cardboard pieces used to raise the stone. It looks like it was never out of the bezel, till I removed it just now.
I took it apart to see if there were any clues under the stone. It looks like it has been stabilized, as I scraped off a few epoxy blobs, and part of the underside is weirdly shiny.
The stone’s color is a muted green, not that rich forest green color I usually see in high quality Cerrillos turquoise. And the matrix is rust colored.
If not Cerrillos, then what else could it be? Royston?
It seems to be rather soft, as I can polish it easily.
I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this!
I know people worry about cracks, but I have a number of pieces with small ones, and have never had a problem. Of course I’m not selling or resetting them, so I’m not worried about that aspect.
@Ziacat
I’m not too worried about the cracks either.
It’s a Franken-piece!
I might remove the repousse bottom part thingy and make a big pendant or ring.
@Ziacat
Haha, well that project came to a grinding halt!
The backplate behind the stone is not silver! Whaaaa?
I guess this thing was made by a bloke in a shed, as they say in the UK.
So I won’t be repurposing the old setting after all.
I guess the stone will go in my stash until I come up with a better idea!
