Hi,
I’ve found this overlay bracelet online listed online, but it doesn’t seem to have a hallmark according to the seller.
The design looks to be an unmarried Corn Maiden, and the chisel marks look legit to my eyes. Aside from it lacking a hallmark (which I was led to believe was almost a universal feature) is the uneven and roughness of the backside.
What does everyone else think? Why wouldn’t this have a hallmark if it were real?
Without a hallmark I can’t say for sure if the cuff is legit, but I have a pair of Hopi made earrings (I trust who I bought them from) that are not marked.
As far as the marks on the back side, I have one hallmarked Hopi pendant that has very similar marks (it’s simply the pressure from the etching/texture stamping showing through). Here is a picture of the back of my pendant, and a picture from Medicine Man Gallery of the back of a belt by the same artist (pretty much every piece that I can see the back of online by this artist looks like this).
With that being said, none of my other Hopi pieces look like that on the back. Plus all of my others are hallmarked (except for the earrings I mentioned). If the cuff is not being sold by a legit trader/store and just by a random person selling online, I would be careful.
And welcome to Turquoise People!
Adding to @Ziacat ‘s astute description of the background texturing as stamp work, which is exactly what it is, the silversmith used a backplate which is a considerably lighter gauge than the overlay. Probably a #22 gauge which is about the lightest gauge one can get away with without risking stamping all the way through the silver. What’s interesting about the impressions left, is that one can see from the separations in the pattern on back that the rows of stamps were laid in individually in the Hopi fashion, with rows of stamps carefully stacked one on top of the other, reinforcing the impression that this is genuine Hopi work, handmade, and not a knock off or a cast down. As to why the bracelet is constructed in gauges a bit lighter than one would typically see is likely that the silversmith was dealing with a fixed price negotiated by a particularly stingy professional buyer.
