Navajo
American Southwest
1950s
Silver and natural turquoise
Length 26 in / 66 cm
Naja 3 1/4 in / 8.3 cm
Provenance: Private collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico
This Navajo necklace is strung with silver beads hand made from Mercury dimes, coins struck in ninety percent silver and melted down for the metal. The beads are heavy and graduate toward the front, where a cast crescent naja hangs with scrolled openwork arms. A single natural turquoise sits at the top of the naja, the only stone on an otherwise all silver piece.
Silver squash blossom drops run along the lower strand, leading down to the naja at the center front. The naja descends from Moorish metalwork and entered Navajo silver as both ornament and protective motif, here cast with scrolled arms rather than left as a plain crescent. At 26 inches this is a heavy, substantial necklace, its weight carried in the coin silver beads and the cast pendant.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Navajo
American Southwest
1950s
Silver and natural turquoise
Length 26 in / 66 cm
Naja 3 1/4 in / 8.3 cm
Provenance: Private collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico
This Navajo necklace is strung with silver beads hand made from Mercury dimes, coins struck in ninety percent silver and melted down for the metal. The beads are heavy and graduate toward the front, where a cast crescent naja hangs with scrolled openwork arms. A single natural turquoise sits at the top of the naja, the only stone on an otherwise all silver piece.
Silver squash blossom drops run along the lower strand, leading down to the naja at the center front. The naja descends from Moorish metalwork and entered Navajo silver as both ornament and protective motif, here cast with scrolled arms rather than left as a plain crescent. At 26 inches this is a heavy, substantial necklace, its weight carried in the coin silver beads and the cast pendant.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
