Hi. This jewelry was left to me by my parents. I’m thinking about selling it on Ebay. I have no idea what price to put on it. Does anyone else? It was identified on the other topic page. Kind of. ( Under : My parents left me this Native Jewelry)
Thank you so much!
Cinnora
If you search on eBay for “squash blossom cluster necklace,” you will find necklaces like yours. Yours looks like a very nice example. If I were comparing it with others for sale, several things would stand out for me:
The top “crest” row of petit point cabochons on the naja is very long and wide.
The stones are a decent size, nicely worked, and of good color.The teeth in the serrated bezel surrounding each stone are very fine, and there are a lot of them, which I have seen in pieces that were made in the 1970s or earlier.
I can’t make out all of the letters in the signature. Is it “SKJ”? What is the last letter?
I think of these as being Zuni pieces, but I’ve admired older cluster work by Juliana Williams – I just bought a truly fabulous pair of earrings by her – and she is Navajo.
The ring looks like it has some age on it. I see that Wilbert Wauneka used a pair of “WW” for his signature, but I am not familiar with his work.
The last piece with the claw needs someone more professional eyeballing it. Those single-letter signatures are tough. Looks like it’s on the hallmark website – it has a particularly big & emphatic period after it – but they have a “?” near it meaning it’s been noted but they don’t know who it is. (I don’t know if that site is updated ever. What everyone needs is some kind of online Wikipedia of native hallmarks for crowd-sourcing contributions.)
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