ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DATE: FRIDAY JULY 30, 2010

Collector Chats The Rise Of Turquoise
And The Return Of Indian Jewelry

I dearly love Navajo jewelry, and continue to write about it as one of the truly undervalued areas that can be collected in today’s marketplace. Indian jewelry represents beauty, hand-craftsmanship, and great rarity, all rolled into one. Unfortunately, there is a substantial amount of cheap and bad Indian (and Indian-type jewelry) on the marketplace today, and that makes assessing good pieces much more difficult.
So, a few quick hints on collecting antique Indian jewelry:
1) Pawned Jewelry is not necessarily good jewelry. All it takes is a stack of old pawn shop tags, and anyone can easily take ugly jewelry and imbue it with instant provenance - thereby clouding the viewer’s impression of the pieces. Look past pawn tags to see if the piece is real or not.
2) Generally, older pieces are not signed, and thus often bring lesser prices. Signing jewelry is a relatively modern phenomenon, and was done in response to buyer demands as well as to take the edge off the cheap, unsigned jewelry produced by non-Indians. Connoisseurship trumps names!
3) “Big and massive” can be a sign of a piece made by and for Indians. Such pieces were seen as signs of wealth and status, and thus were expensive and highly prized.
Perhaps the most important lesson for collectors is “Learn your stones and your tribes.” Navajo work often uses large pieces of turquoise while Zuni needlepoint work focuses upon small and finely matched stones. Hopi cast jewelry is very different than Navajo beadwork. Read the books and study, study, study.
This brings me to the subject of turquoise. One of the real determinates of rarity in Indian jewelry is the quality of the turquoise stones. Today, because many of the mines are played out, located on tribal land, or cannot operate due to environmental concerns; there is a real scarcity of high quality stones. Simply put, a great piece of raw or cut turquoise can be worth its weight in gold! In looking at the contemporary jewelry market, however, one would never know that there is very little real American turquoise on the marketplace. Flea markets, gift shops, and the Internet are filled with silver and turquoise Indian jewelry. Sadly much, if not all, of this new jewelry is made up of bad stones. What do I mean by bad stones:
1) Afghanistan or Asian turquoise. This is real turquoise, but not mined in this country. Usually bright blue with few occlusions, Afghan turquoise can easily be determined. I should note that many Indian artists have begun to use this stone in their work since American stones are unattainable.
2) Stabilized turquoise. Occurring as a copper-based mineral, not all turquoise is useable as jewelry. Much turquoise is soft and does not take a polish. In the past, this material was often dumped at mines, but today it is collected and infused with waxes to make it harder and to allow it to be cut. With time as the waxes deteriorate and leach away a stone can turn “milky.” Also, stabilized turquoise will often chip more readily than harder untreated turquoise stone.
3) Reconstituted turquoise. What do you do with the small findings, chips and dust generated from working with turquoise? You crush it, mix it with resins and create a new stone. Such reconstituted turquoise is not generally used for large pieces, as it is easy to identify but is frequently found as part of smaller works.
4) Plastic. Yup, good old plastic or resin is occasionally used to make fake turquoise. Happily, it’s easy to identify, and often found on the cheapest of jewelry.
Collecting older Indian jewelry usually does not involve these materials - although many of these techniques have been around for 30 plus years, and thus can “fake-out” even the most experienced collector.
Of course, the advice for collecting is: buy from only reputable dealers and obtain written statements of what the piece is. With Indian items, this is not always easy. Again, study, study and study some more before venturing into this world.
Finally, and always my caveat in collecting: Buy it, not for its future monetary value, but because you like it and want to wear it now. That is the mark of the best antique!