Featured Silver & Turquoise Pendant & Earrings, Dishta-Style?

One evening last year my boyfriend, after rummaging around in his closet, tossed in my lap a battered plastic supermarket bag containing an even more battered paper supermarket sack, inside which was a jumble of jewellery that had belonged to his late mother.

His parents liked to travel, and most of the bag's contents was inexpensive souvenir stuff, necklaces made of dyed seeds or bits of mother of pearl, that sort of thing. Apart from a 14k watch with a diamond encircled face, whose weight had pulled it down to the very bottom of the heap, there was little worth salvaging.

It was not until browsing posts from earlier this year that I remembered I had set aside this pendant and coordinating earrings. Completely unmarked; only the commercially made findings for the screw back earrings are marked 'sterling'. Think the pieces would have been bought new and would probably be no earlier than the 1970s, more likely later.

Any info/thoughts/observations appreciated.

 

As screwbacks, they could be earlier, but that inlay style says 70s to me. They look hand made. ...Zuni maybe?

 

Hard to know whether the screw backs indicate that the earrings themselves are earlier, or just a concession to older tourists who never did get their ears pierced. I will have to ask my boyfriend whether his parents did much traveling before their kids were grown.

This way of 'flush setting' the stones seems to have originated in Zuni. Some of the questions I'm hoping our NA experts can answer include whether: this technique stayed with the Zuni or was adopted by other groups; the upper part of the pendant would have been sand cast; the design of the pendant is a stylized rain cloud. Surprisingly, casual scouting around on the Internet is not turning up anything quite like the pendant.

The photos do not pick it up well, but all pieces, the earrings in particular, have little mallet dings on the back, so feel fairly confident they are hand work.

Thanks for taking the time to look & give me your thoughts, evelyb.

 

Egyptians were flush setting stone into jewelry over 3000 years ago,the technique is not new.The NA silversmiths were taught by the Spanish and there is the thousands of pieces of "Zuni/Hopi" style inlay dumped into the market starting in the 90's from Indonesia.

 

I was inaccurately remembering something that @Any Jewelry wrote in a post this summer, that 'Frank [Dishta] was the first Zuni to make turquoise inlay flush with the mount.' While I think it's probable that these pieces are post-1970, I think it is even more probable that they are pre-1990, from what I know of family history.

 

I thought the pendant looked east Indian...... Taj Mahal with 2 birds looking over their backs.

 

I could see it as 2 birds; the Taj Mahal, not so much. A Google search for similar images suggested this:

 

There are some NA silversmiths who are the product of a mixed marriage - two different tribes. The necklace and earrings may be a cross-fertilization too, created by a smith who was taught two different traditions and fused them.

 

Lovely jewellery Bronwen.
After the 1970s NA silversmiths were marking their jewellery more and more. If these pieces were NA made after 1980, I would expect them to be marked.
Your boyfriend's parents could have bought jewellery that already had some age.

The stones in the pendant are not perfectly matched, a characteristic of pre-1980 Zuni jewellery. Matching of turquoise started long before that, but not everyone used matched stones. By the 1980s they did.
It looks a bit Egyptian inspired, but it isn't Egyptian. While the Egyptians love their turquoise, they favour a darker shade, preferably without veins.
Veined turquoise is appreciated in the US and China. Other countries generally prefer 'pristine' stones. This pendant is certainly not Chinese, so it must be American. It could very well be Zuni.
Maybe Zuni Art Deco Egyptian Revival?

NA artists did not live in isolation, and were often inspired by other traditions.
The 'traditional' Navajo floral and swirl style is pure Art Nouveau, and Art Deco is found in many Zuni pieces. After all, Zuni inlaid jewellery started in the late 20s-early 30s. In the 50s, Modernism entered NA designs, blending with Art Deco into gorgeous NA artistry.
Artists were inspired by exhibitions and travels. Famous Hopi artist Charles Loloma incorporated lapis and salmon coral into his work after seeing an Egyptian exhibition, pearls after a trip to Japan, and South African ostrich egg discs after seeing Khoisan necklaces.

The earrings are Zuni Dishta style, but probably not by a member of the Dishta family. The stones are reasonably matched, my guess is they are 1960s.

I posted these before, but they are relevant now. Besides, one should always seize an opportunity to show Frank Dishta jewellery.
Flush inlay earrings, unmatched stones. By Frank Dishta, the initiator of the Zuni flush inlay style:

http://savvycollector.com/products/...rrings-with-locking-ear-wires-by-frank-dishta

 

8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 [This is what Pontiac has to say on the subject. Or maybe she's telling me she would like to eat again.]

NEWS FLASH: Reset. Just got off the phone with the Boyfriend. My assumption that his parents did not do much traveling before the kids were grown was quite wrong. They were in Mexico in December 1955 and there again in 1956. Places they hit on the second trip included Taxco. They were there a third time in the 60s. What do we think now?

AJ, love the Dishta chandelier earrings. My own preference is for turquoise that is more green, less blue, with some character. Veins, matrix fine by me, as is a harmonious mix of shades.

Definitely can see the pendant, as Holly suggested, as 2 birds. Anyone else see it as representational, birds or otherwise? Or strictly abstract?

 

Birds, or maybe wings. It's possible it's Mexican, but Taxco silversmiths generally marked the heck out of their pieces by the 60s. I'm not sure what they'd for pieces made for the own use, but they probably hallmarked those too. I'm guessing they picked up this set on the way home.

 

Say hello to Pontiac, great contribution.

These do not look like Taxco pieces to me.
I see two birds as well.

 

They went several places in Mexico, not only Taxco. Wondering whether mother might have acquired the pieces in some Mexican gift shop, but they originated in the US? The minute you add 'flush' as a search term to go with 'turquoise jewelry' it seems everything that comes up is identified, rightly or wrongly, as Zuni.

Maybe Pontiac saw 2 birds as well!

 

My kind of turquoise:

 

Got the BF on the phone again. Mom was in Arizona, including Flagstaff, in the mid-1960s. This could account for a lot. Would it be fair to say, 'Probably Zuni, Dishta-style flush inlay of turquoise, not believed to be by Dishta family'?

 

There does seem to be a Zuni motif 'water bird' that is sometimes 2 birds facing each other. Still have not found anything that looks like this pendant, but 'architecture' is similar:

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/316237205057294245/

Getting there, slowly.

 

I couldn't say that they are Not, Zuni...or Not , Dishta Style Zuni......

They sure have the regional look to them....

 

AJ's guess starting to look spot on.

 

Thank you komokwa. Was hoping we would hear from you. The truth is out there. Question is, has anyone put it up on the Internet yet?

Did also find these, supposedly Frank Dishta.

 

Very beautiful.
The water bird, or peyote bird, motif is a symbol of the Native American Church. Your birds are not water/peyote birds, the peyote bird always has a fantail, curved wingtips, and other recognizable features. It is believed to dive into the water and find medicine for the people.
This is the first time I've seen it depicted as a pair.
The NA Church was not present in Zuni in the 60s. I doubt it has much of a following there now, but since the Navajo started making Native American Church jewellery, some Zuni apparently followed. This one is made by Lynette Laiwakete, which means it is pretty recent.
Lynette Laiwakete depicted them as a pair, facing each other, with a peyote fan in the middle. Peyote fans are important ritual paraphernalia, they are used to spread sacred cedar smoke during a peyote ceremony.

This is the classic representation of the peyote bird: