Pueblo
Southwest, United States
Circa 1880
Shell inlaid with turquoise in pitch
Height 1 5/8 in (4.1 cm) each
Provenance: Private collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico
A matched pair of pendant earrings, each a tapered shell slab drilled at the top for suspension and inlaid across the lower third with a mosaic of turquoise. The turquoise tiles are cut in irregular squares and set in pine pitch directly into the shell, ranging from blue to green with natural matrix. The upper shell is left plain, its surface carrying the age and handling wear of an early piece, worked in a mosaic on shell tradition that reaches back to the ancestral Southwest.
Earrings of this slab and mosaic form are among the older surviving types of Pueblo turquoise work, made long before the introduction of silver findings. Each is pierced for cord or wire suspension in the traditional manner rather than fitted with a metal hook. The pair is well matched in size and inlay, with wear consistent with age.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Pueblo
Southwest, United States
Circa 1880
Shell inlaid with turquoise in pitch
Height 1 5/8 in (4.1 cm) each
Provenance: Private collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico
A matched pair of pendant earrings, each a tapered shell slab drilled at the top for suspension and inlaid across the lower third with a mosaic of turquoise. The turquoise tiles are cut in irregular squares and set in pine pitch directly into the shell, ranging from blue to green with natural matrix. The upper shell is left plain, its surface carrying the age and handling wear of an early piece, worked in a mosaic on shell tradition that reaches back to the ancestral Southwest.
Earrings of this slab and mosaic form are among the older surviving types of Pueblo turquoise work, made long before the introduction of silver findings. Each is pierced for cord or wire suspension in the traditional manner rather than fitted with a metal hook. The pair is well matched in size and inlay, with wear consistent with age.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
