Featured Heishi/Heishe, necklace?

I bought this from a U.K. Charity shop purely because I could see the huge amount of work involved in making it. I am pretty ignorant about this sort of item as I haven’t seen much or handled any at all. Is it NA? Is it old, a tourist item? I found some similar online hence the Heishi thread title but I don’t know.
The coin is the only American one I have to show rough idea of size. The necklace is 33inches long, 5 strands and the small(shell)? beads are so tiny, only about a millimetre wide. I can see coral, turquoise, spiny oyster, amethyst, mop, quartz, 3 blue ceramic beads, there are some stones I don’t know and there are 5 animals, maybe foxes, one per strand. The animals look hand carved to me. The cone fastenings have no silver marks just a pattern.
Thanks for any info.
~

 

It is a fetish necklace. These were originally made by the Zuni, later the Navajo made them too.
But over the last few decades many 'copies' were made in Asia. Those generally have big focal pendants, like this one:


I honestly couldn't say who made yours, or where. With those tumbled stones and round beads it doesn't look like the old style Zuni fetish necklaces I know (and own). It does look like it is strung on sinew, possibly artificial. Native Americans use both. And it is a nice necklace.

Maybe @reader recognizes the style.

 

Thanks, I thought the cones maybe looked good for NA because of the patterning. Plus the animals look hand carved and with the tiny red and blue beads on top of them looked a good sign too however the 3 round blue ceramic ones do look out of place.

 

Difficult, even some Native Americans use hand carved fetish beads from the Philippines.
The tiny beads are actually not traditional for Zuni fetishes, but are added by some makers to satisfy the non-Native demand for an 'authentic' look. I know...
I agree the round beads look off. But far be it for me to dictate how a fetish necklace maker should compose his or her necklaces.

 

This is an area I am keen to explore as it is just the sort of jewellery that gets overlooked in the Charity shops (not that there’s likely to be a huge amount in the East of England U.K. but you never know!)There are lots of the quartz stone chip necklaces, if you remember I bought an Indian carnelian piece that I thought was something else, disappointing after asking here to find out, but that was a good learning experience.

 

I am seeing a Santa Domingo style to it. They were popular in the the shop I worked in (back in the 80's and 90's) ... we carried both actual NA ones and ones created by non-NA artists. I'm trying to remember the name of the non-NA designer who was pretty prolific in making them ... I think it was a woman (but I wouldn't bet $ on it)

 

"treasure necklace" is another term that comes to mind when seeing your necklace with the random bits and pieces strung here and there (attractively).

 

I’ve just found this one by plugging in 1980s as your suggestion and it has the same cones. Thanks, it’s the same length too.
https://www.yearsafter.net/products...e-coral-turquoise-jewelry?variant=33420454799

 

Just reading through, it states the Santo Domingo makers only carved birds, so my foxes don’t qualify.

 

Most cones were not made by the beaders themselves, so several beaders, Native and non-Native, could have bought these same ones from the same wholesalers. Most have generic 'marks'.
Sometimes cones have a real maker's mark, which is the mark of the person who made the necklace.

 

I had hoped the marks on mine were the makers, I suppose they still could be.

 

I would call yours Santo Domingo style or inspired. I would call the one you've shown in post #8 the same too, with no actual proof to who created it.

 

They could, but the marks on cones are generally by makers who work in silver. I'll see if I can find yours, if I do, I'll let you know.

 

Well, I’ve had an interesting time looking around. It’s been well worth the £3.50 I spent on the necklace.
I did pass on some big silver turquoise and coral chunky cuff bracelets in another c shop last year. They wanted £15 each so I didn’t buy. Think I missed out.

 

Thank you AJ.

 

Even if it is not Native made, it is still a very nice necklace.

That is an absolute bargain, Native or not.

 

Houseful, I looked at the cones again, it is a decoration around the rim of the cone, not a maker's mark. Apologies for not noticing before. Very pretty decoration though, with more detail than the sunrise symbol you see on so many.

 

Ah, thanks for looking again.

 

Again, late to the party. That piece is probably newer commercial Santo Domingo although as stated above there’s always the possibility of a non native stringer but if it’s a newer commercial piece and as stated, all kinds of crap can be used and still be native strung.It doesn’t matter as you can’t use the Pueblo name anyway, if you’re listing on ebay since you don’t know the artist.

On ebay, you can say Southwesten Fetish Treasure New Mexican Multi Strand Turquoise Coral Shell Necklace. ( Check that materials are authentic). Agree that it’s “modern” but done in the old style. An old one would not have the silver caps and would just be string tied.You can check the caps to make sure they’re sterling. Otherwise it is IMO not authentic as the beads are wrong but I don’t know the source.

To further determine quality you can run your fingers up and down without looking at it. The finer the quality, the smoother the beads will feel without breaking from less than perfect diameter matching beads. Fine fetish necklaces are very smooth. Commercial ones are not.

 

The tiny shell beads are very smooth to the touch. It’s not a necklace I would wear so it goes into the hoard. It has been interesting to see all the examples online, I hope I will find more on my c shop visits.
Thanks @reader for the extra info about selling, I’ve never sold a single thing on eBay yet, but it may well happen one day!