Lander Blue (yes again!)

Me too. But this was from the Turquoise Museum in ABQ (my book is from the mid 90’s) which I believe is pretty well regarded.

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Hi there, I realize that this post was a year ago - yet I have a burning question. Is the set marked E.A.?

This is a necklace I have ever seen. It weighs 178 grams in total, made of stone and 14K gold.

The pendant is surprisingly large. It can be seen that it is made of a complex three-layer frame of 14K gold, inlaid with some turquoise blocks, and four turquoise stones very similar to Land blue are placed on the front.

According to the introduction, this necklace is the work of David Gaussoin, but I haven’t found any further information.

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The enlarged picture seems to show traces of some kind of material repair on the surface of the stone.

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Good morning, @Jiangxi_cn. This looks like Lander to me, and the material to which you are referring looks like mother rock or matrix rather than a repair material. This looks like something made in Chet Jones’ Nugget Gallery shop in Gallup NM. Chet’s business specialized in high end 14K Gold settings with elaborate work for Lander Blue stones, and this is exactly the kind of setting one would expect to see with genuine Lander. Congratulations if you now own this, it’s an amazing piece!

I will add that if this isn’t Lander, someone went to truly extraordinary lengths to create this setting around this equally extraordinary Turquoise

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Another likely candidate! I was visiting some friends who have a jewelry shop up in the gold rush town of Virginia City; just a hop skip and jump from where we live. The father and son owners were happy to show me their new Lander Blue rings. Story is, a local jeweler just acouple blocks away bought a buckle from someone who came in the shop wanting to sell. The jeweler recognized the turquoise and snapped it up. The buckle had 3 cabs felt to be Lander. He kept his favorite cab and sold the other two to the father and son. They then had the jeweler make them matching rings…ta da!


This turquoise is gorgeous, and to my eye appears to be Lander. If I had been able to snatch up one of these cabs, I would have asked a known NA artist to create a piece, instead of a local small town jeweler.

And, @mmrogers, lookie what I picked up at their shop! These bands are gorgeous! I am keeping one since it will look great with my Leonard Schmallie cuff. The other is a Christmas gift for my sister. I love the combination of sterling and 14 K gold in both these pieces!


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The Lander rings are great! Looks like you got the jackpot on your 14K and sterling rings from our workshop. There’s an interesting story to go with the wave ring. In 2004 or five astronaut John Phillips took a set of those rings up for he and his wife to renew their vows from from the space station.

Somewhere I have a snapshot John took of the rings floating in zero gravity aboard the space station. I’ll see if I can find it and post it.

That is a gorgeous bracelet, and I agree, those pieces complement each other beautifully!

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Great Story! What fun. The wave ring would make a perfect wedding ring! Evidently one of the shop owners, Soloman, bought from you years ago. His son, Nick is doing the buying now. I should have asked him where he picked up the rings. He had a couple of other styles of yours in sterling and 14K that were equally gorgeous, it was hard to make a decision…Simple elegance is a good description.

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I know exactly who you’re talking about. Great guys. Are they still in Virginia City?

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Yep! He’s been there 34 years! Soloman said you were a great guy and enjoyed dealing with you! He showed me his private stash (lots of great Zuni) and bought a great men’s Dan Simplicio cuff from me (we actually did some trading :blush:). I’ll tell him you remember him the next time I see him.

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That’s awesome, @Bmpdvm! I really love working with 14K and sterling. The combination is just unbeatable. I’ll give Nick and Solomon a call soon to say hello and catch up. Any chance we can get a look at that new Dan Simplicio cuff?

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I think I posted my Dan Simplicio pieces before. Although I love this turquoise/coral cuff, it was way too big for me and unfortunately my husband is not a fan of wearing cuffs. I traded the coral and turquoise cuff to Soloman, mostly because in the past we discussed his history at Zuni and familiarity with Dan’s work.

And this is a cuff by Dan that I’m keeping. Although it’s big and heavy it fits me so well, which is interesting because so many of his cuffs I’ve seen are quite large.

It’s so great we have the wonderful variety of Native American workmanship! From these fabulous older heavy sterling / turquoise +/- coral pieces to the superb, more contemporary gold and silver pieces. I love it all!

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Beautiful pieces. The turquoise in the second photo is just outstanding.

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