Early and Rare Navajo Copper amd Cerrillos New Mexico Turquoise Squash Blossom Necklace

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An early and extremely rare Navajo Copper and Cerrillos, New Mexico turquoise “Squash Blossom" style necklace, c. 1880’s-1890’s

This piece is truly special, an early and extremely rare, late 19th Century Navajo copper "Squash Blossom" style necklace. This is only the third such piece of this type and quality and magnitude that we have ever seen and it might

be the best one of the three. The late, great Santa Fe Navajo jewelry collector and dealer, Teal McKibben owned one

and the late Navajo and Pueblo jewelry dealer and collector, Lauris Phillips of Pasadena, CA also had one which is

now in a prominent museum collection in Santa Fe.

Why are these pieces so unique and rare? For a couple reasons; first, Navajo copper pieces were generally made earlier, around 1880-1900, than many silver ones were before the widespread availability of silver in Navajoland and before the increased influence of traders, tourists and commercialism. Also, they were a lot less expensive to make being made from found and scavenged materials i.e., old copper pots and pans, copper telegraph wire and copper pennies so they have a true found art or folk art element to them as well. Too, they were mostly made in the far-flung, more remote and more old-style reaches of the Navajo Reservation again where silver was harder to come by and trading posts few and far between and people had less means; places such as the Navajo Mountain area on the Arizona/Utah border. Many years

ago, we purchased a wonderful, small group of old Navajo copper pieces, bracelets, rings, earrings etc. from the original collection of the old Wetherill Family trading post at Oljato (Moonlight Water) near Navajo Mountain.

However, the most defining factor, in our opinions, which accounts for the great rarity of full-size large scale

Navajo copper pieces such as this one is simply the exceptional difficulty of working with copper. (See sidebar below.)

Copper is considerably harder to melt and to work than silver and acquiring it in large quantities meant scavaging

it from other forms. A short length of copper wire could be fairly readily hammered out into a crude bracelet, but making 42 large two pieces beads, 10 copper squash blossoms and a large naja entirely of copper as in this necklace is a task

of an entirely different magnitude.

There is a very small amount of silver in this necklace in the form of the silver solder used to join the two-piece copper beads together. This further helps to date the piece to the time frame we are indicating. Also, the inlaid use of a turquoise stone helps this dating. Prior to around 1870/75, most Navajo silversmiths had not yet learned how to solder and set stones were not really used, the earlier Navajo jewelry pieces in the so-called First Phase (1865-1880) had no solder and none or very few set stones.

Not only is this necklace rare and unusual, on top of that it is BIG, its larger scale being yet another clear indication

of its late 19th C. time frame, these very large-scale, early full-sized necklaces with large two-piece beads (1/2+ diameter) were only made until around 1910-1915, and made by Navajos for other Navajos or Pueblo people, not for commercial Anglo trade or sale purposes, the hand-hammered copper Naja pendant is also large and superbly made probably hammered out of thick copper telegraph wire and/or copper pennies and set with an early hand-cut piece of Cerrillos,

New Mexico turquoise from the ancient mines around 20 miles south as the crow flies from Santa Fe. Los Cerrillos

(the little hills) is one of the oldest turquoise mines in the country and the world. Most of the turquoise found in the archaeological excavations at Chaco Canyon and in other ancient sites across the Southwest was Cerrillos turquoise and it was also found in the Aztec Emperor Montezuma’s crown jewels and elsewhere in what it now present-day Mexico.

There was a brisk ancient trade between the Southwest Pueblos here and the Aztec Empire; macaws and chocolate for turquoise. The necklace also very much appears to be still strung on its original Native brain-tanned leather thong

which is in itself rare and unusual and speaks well to its time period and the originality of its condition. The European glass trade bead at the top might be a later addition but might also be original. Such beads were widely traded across Indian Country in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Too, it might possibly be a so-called “Sing bead”, tied onto the necklace

in celebration and witness of the owners' participation in a particular Navajo Ceremonial or “Sing”.

The necklace measures 16 1/2" in length from top to bottom measured while lying flat on a table. The overall circumference end-to-end is Approximately 26.” The necklace is composed of 42 large two-piece copper beads, 1/2"+

diameter each, 10 copper "Squash Blossoms", approximately 1 3/4" length each, 1 copper and turquoise Naja pendant:

3" height, 2 1/2" width and1 tie-on European glass trade bead. The Necklace appears to be strung on its original Native brain-tanned leather thong. The necklace weighs a substantial, yet surprisingly comfortable on the body 246 grams or 8.67 ounces, slightly over half a pound, and it is in excellent original vintage condition for its considerable 130-145 years of age. There is some age-appropriate greenish verdigris oxidization to several areas of the copper present and several of the copper beads silver solders have partially split open, which is also completely age-appropriate.

In our opinions, this is exactly what you want a historic piece such as this to look like.

While anyone could, of course, wear this necklace as a mighty impressive and distinctive piece of jewelry, we would suggest that this necklace is more of a “museum” display type of piece and should be regarded, maintained and displayed primarily as such, dispayed on a stand, table or hung on a wall. This is a true and exceptionally rare, collection-type piece encapsulating and encompassing as it does an extraordinary amount of unique Southwestern history, Native culture, tradition, skill, rarity and beauty.

Price available upon request

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COPPER AND SILVER

Copper metal is considerably more difficult to work with for the metalsmith than is silver. For one thing, its melting point is 15% higher, 150 degrees centigrade higher at 1064 celsius a temperature that was difficult to achieve and maintain in the extremely primitive conditions of life in late 19th and early 20th century Navajo land. Also, copper is some 20% harder than silver on the standard Mohs hardness scale meaning it is that much more difficult to hammer and form. This difficulty in workmanship helps to explain in large part why historic large-scale, complex Navajo copper pieces such as this one are so rare.

At left, a traditional Navajo silversmith at work, c. 1920. At right, Navajo Mountain. In the remote and rugged country around Navajo Mountain, the use of scavenged copper for making jewelry was more prevalent than elsewhere in Navajoland.