amber
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posted on May 11, 2005 10:34:49 AM new
A friend of mine is interested in selling a piece of Navaho squash blossom silver jewelry on eBay, but she wants to know how much it is worth first. I can only find one piece on eBay, and it has turqouise in it. My friend says that hers is all silver with pomegranate decoration on rawhide. It was purchased around 1900. She now lives in Ontario, and the piece is in a safe deposit box over 2,000 miles away in British Columbia, so I have no picture.
Does anyone know where I can find prices for pieces like this? She thinks she is going to retire on it, but I told her not to get her hopes up. She took it to a jeweler, and he had no idea, then she took it to a museum, and they wanted her to donate it to them for their collection, and would give no estimate of it's value.
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CBlev65252
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posted on May 11, 2005 10:40:07 AM new
She would be better off contacting an auction house. If it's worth a lot of money, and I suspect it may be, she won't get it on eBay.
Cheryl
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cta
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posted on May 11, 2005 10:51:46 AM new
A friend of mine is interested in selling a piece of Navaho squash blossom silver jewelry on eBay, but she wants to know how much it is worth first. I can only find one piece on eBay, and it has turquoise in it.
I tried searching Completed auctions and found 264 closed Squash Blossom pieces - many were not just turquoise. Try narrowing your search to "Squash Blossom" only and see what you come up with. Some are getting good $. Also, try "Navajo" instead of "Navaho" and you should get better results.
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Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. ~
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amber
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posted on May 11, 2005 11:50:14 AM new
Thanks so much for the help.
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buyhigh
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posted on May 11, 2005 12:44:53 PM new
She might also check to see what the beads etc. were strung with. Older ones used thread. Also whether the beads were handmade, benchmade or machine made This gives the age of the piece. Jewelry made by Navajos around 1900 is quite rare and quite valuable since it does have a historical value. It was also quite crudely done because the tools were homemade.
buyhigh
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gasolineguys
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posted on May 11, 2005 02:29:27 PM new
Amber, the pomegranate decoration is probably red coral, they used a lot of that in there jewelry
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Roadsmith
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posted on May 11, 2005 08:11:45 PM new
The Navajos also used silver pomegranate blossoms in their jewelry; I don't think it has to be coral.
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profe51
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posted on May 12, 2005 06:36:41 AM new
The pomegranates are the blossoms that are referred to in the name of the piece. They aren't squash at all. The Navajo copied the design from silver leg decorations the Spanish soldiers wore, silver "Granadas" or pomegranates that were sewn like conchos down the outside seam of their pants. On a piece that old, you'd not expect to see much stone at all, especially coral. The blossoms or pomegranates are virtually always silver.
The "naja", the crescent shaped pendant at the bottom of the necklace, was copied from the silver crescent worn on the head pieces of the Spanish horses, right between the animal's eyes, it was an Arabic good luck talisman the Spanish adopted, having learned their horsemanship skills from the Arabs.
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Dick Cheney: "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11..."
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stopwhining
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posted on May 12, 2005 11:25:08 AM new
why not call the Navaho indian orz and see what they have to say??
may be some Indian reservation casino wants to bid on it.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
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buyhigh
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posted on May 13, 2005 08:39:38 AM new
Just re - read all this and am wondering what you meant by squash blossom jewelry? Is this a necklace or just the so-called squash blossoms sewn onto rawhide?
buyhigh
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amber
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posted on May 13, 2005 10:25:40 AM new
buyhigh: I am not sure, it's not something I am familiar with at all. I will have to call my friend again and find out. She just told me it was all silver, from turn of the century, squash blossoms and pomegranates, and it has a bangle and earrings in the set. I think she is going to British Columbia next week, I'll see if she can get a picture.
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stopwhining
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posted on May 13, 2005 10:30:50 AM new
I doubt if she can retire on the piece!
Unless it belonged to Geronimo or General Custard,what tribe is Geronimo??
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
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buyhigh
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posted on May 13, 2005 10:43:47 AM new
Geranimo was an Apache. A few Navajos learned silver and I guess copper & brass smithing from Mexican smiths in the 1850's. In time they taught each other.
buyhigh
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vintageads4u
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posted on May 16, 2005 06:48:41 AM new
If I may use this thread with a question. My daughter and I were in a shop this weekend and were told that a piece we were looking at was "vintage Navajo". On the back was the imprint of Wallace silver. Would that make sense?
Beth
www.vintageads4u.com
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Libra63
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posted on May 16, 2005 09:01:50 AM new
I have a collecting Southwestern Native American Jewelry Book.
The squash blossom is an elongated version of the silver pomegranate blossoms worn as trouser ornaments by Spanish dandies. The treatment of these foreign design elements by the early navajo silversmiths resulted in jewelry that is today instantly recognized as Indian. Squash Blossom necklaces made by the Navajo Indians could be as early as 1850.
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stopwhining
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posted on May 16, 2005 09:06:40 AM new
here is wallace silver-
Wallace Silversmiths traces its beginnings back to Robert Wallace, who made the first nickel spoon in America in 1835. Wallace is now one of the largest sterling silver manufacturers in the world. Click on the picture of the handle for a complete list of
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
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Roadsmith
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posted on May 16, 2005 09:08:13 AM new
I grew up in Phoenix in the 50s; we always called "those necklaces" (the big chunky kind) squash-blossom necklaces. All of us girls wanted one badly but they were expensive even then. The Goldwater and Udall girls in our h.s. had them. Sigh.
I was remembering the other day that the big thing in girls' apparel then was to wear a "squaw dress." It was ornate, 3/4-length sleeve top, and the skirt was full and crinkled. We could wash the skirt, then wind it around a broomstick to dry it so it would have those long striated wrinkles (can't think of the name of that, too early!). And of course we wore those starched crinoline underskirts with ALL our skirts. When I went away to college in the Midwest, I wore my squaw dress exactly once. Everyone there asked me if I was in a play, what was I so dressed up for, what WAS that odd outfit. Never wore it again. I wonder if anyone else remembers this.
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Libra63
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posted on May 16, 2005 09:22:10 AM new
Silver marks..
http://www.925-1000.com/american-mfg8.html
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Libra63
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posted on May 16, 2005 09:23:46 AM new
Are you that old Roadsmith  
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vintageads4u
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posted on May 16, 2005 12:48:40 PM new
I guess my question was: Would a real vintage Navajo bracelet HAVE a Wallace mark? Know absolutely nothing about silver or jewelry.
Thanks!
Beth
www.vintageads4u.com
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Roadsmith
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posted on May 16, 2005 01:41:45 PM new
Libra: Not old at all! Why, I've been 39 for quite a few years now--just a spring chicken.
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stopwhining
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posted on May 16, 2005 03:05:18 PM new
No,authentic navajo jewelry is made by navajo indians,not by wallace manufacturing company.
or made by company in HK or Taiwan or India.
-sig file -------
Eat grass,kick ass,never go belly up!
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classicrock000
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posted on May 16, 2005 05:45:26 PM new
Yes I remember seeing you wear that "squaw dress" kemosabe,and also remember you forgot to put on your crinoline underskirt-heh-heh
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Baseball season has started,but they have it all wrong.3 strikes and you're out,4 balls you walk.I can tell you right now a man with 4 balls could not possibly walk
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tOMWiii
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posted on May 16, 2005 06:00:02 PM new
There's just NO Hopi for YOU!
"I'm going to spend a lot of time on Social Security. I enjoy it. I enjoy taking on the issue. I guess, it's the Mother in me."—Guess Who? Washington D.C., April 14, 2005
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photosensitive
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posted on May 17, 2005 06:14:32 AM new
Squaw dresses! Oh the memories! They were trimmed with rick rack (how Indian is that?). The next thing I flashed on was the pair of pink suede moccasins with beaded toes I wore with one of them. I have not thought about those shoes for years. Yes, I know that makes me seem old but heck if I wasn't this old I would not be retired and that makes me very happy.
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“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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neglus
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posted on May 17, 2005 06:53:28 AM new
The squaw dress fad must have missed Nebraska! I don't remember it at any rate - when was it?
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photosensitive
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posted on May 17, 2005 07:09:36 AM new
Neglus, now you want me to really show my age! It was in the mid 1950s in west Texas.
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“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
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Roadsmith
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posted on May 17, 2005 07:10:05 AM new
Photosensitive: Yes, those outfits were quite gaudy. Mine was a medium-dark green with allllll that trim on it, three tiers as I recall.
Neglus: I'm sure this was an Arizona fad only (possibly New Mexico?). There's no way it would have flown elsewhere in the U.S. I got to college (in the midwest) and saw that the California girls were wearing wool skirts and white bucs with short socks. I had NOTHING in my wardrobe that looked like that; those girls fitted right in to what the rest of the country was wearing. It was a real culture shock.
And, Neglus, off the subject--you were an Episcopal priest's daughter? I was a preacher's kid (Baptist). Couldn't we write a book on our experiences growing up as the church princess?! Some positive, some negative.
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neglus
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posted on May 17, 2005 07:28:51 AM new
LOL to " princess " ! I was a little young for that fad - I was in knee pants in the mid-fifties (peddle-pushers actually) and thought my Davy Crockett hat and cowboy outfit were the cat's meow. Many fashions never made it our way anyway. I was still wearing saddle shoes and Villager wool skirts and sweaters when Haight-Ashbury was THE thing.
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