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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 414204, member: 2844&quot;]It is a lovely, very elegant necklace, Billy. My guess is late 70s.</p><p>If I were to sell it, I would call it Southwest style, as komo said. If pieces aren&#039;t signed, or &#039;signed by design&#039; - unmistakeably made in ... era by famous maker such and such - it is impossible to say for sure.</p><p><br /></p><p>The style resembles or is inspired by what we now call Navajo, as obb said.</p><p>But in the early years of SW Native silversmithing there was a general fashionable style made by all silversmiths, based on demand.</p><p>Although turquoise was already being mined, much of the early turquoise in NA jewellery was imported from Persia and Afghanistan.</p><p>Persian turquoise is still highly valued, as is Mediterranean coral.</p><p>The appreciation of local turquoise, and the valuation of turquoise from one mine over another, came later. Nowadays many Native silversmiths work with turquoise from around the globe again.</p><p><br /></p><p>Out of the fashions of the early days, the Navajo style developed as more Art Nouveau and designs introduced by the Spanish, and the Zuni as more Art Deco with distinct Zuni designs. The style we now know as Hopi, based on archeological motifs, was developed for a silversmithing project for Hopi war veterans.</p><p>But artists being artists, the style lines were never rigid.</p><p><br /></p><p>I agree, it has. I know of some silversmiths here in the Netherlands who have worked with Sleeping Beauty turquoise. But never in a NA style.</p><p>And turquoise from other countries has always been used in the SW as well. Some turquoise from Hubei, China, resembles US turquoise and is now also used by NA artists.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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