© 2010-2025 by Fine Arts of the Southwest, Inc. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or use is strictly prohibited by law.
A very beautiful vintage Navajo ingot-silver,
turquoise and red coral “Bangle” style bracelet,
c. 1930’s-1940’s
This little bracelet is a very sweet and very precious eyeful of goodness, a “revival” of a classic turn of the 19th
to 20th century narrow Navajo silver “Bangle” style bracelet, but unlike many of these earlier pieces which were only very lightly decorated simple bands of plain silver, this more recent bangle bracelet is very beautifully adorned and most artfully shaped with three swooping finely hammered and flattened out oval-shaped silver panels each of which holds a lovely set stone.
In the bracelet’s center, on a nicely hammered silver oval-shaped platform, sits a lovely blue-green spiderweb turquoise stone, very possibly from Nevada’s famed Lone Mountain mine and on each of the bracelet’s nicely-flattened and hammered-out terminal ends sits a gorgeous piece of deep red Mediterannean coral. The three stones are all set in old-style “foldover” type silver bezels. In an interesting touch, the three silver bezels have been very lightly decorated all the way around their perimeters with very light parallel stamped or etched lines to give the appearance of the bezels being serrated when in actuality they are not. Overall, it’s a beautiful and fascinating design treatment with the swooping forms of the flattened out panels and the narrower body of the bracelet’s shank giving the piece a very pleasing and visually arresting contour and sense of motion.
In the areas between the three stones, the bracelet’s ingot-silver shank has been accentuated on both sides by
some interesting, almost freeform stamp work designs which give a uniquely textured surface to the shank and which have clearly acquired some considerable wear over the decades. The bracelet measures 3/8" in width at its center point tapering in to 1/4" in width along the shank and then tapering out again at the flattened terminal ends back to 3/8” in width. The bracelet’s inner circumference end-to-end is 5 1/4" and the gap between the terminals is 1" for a total interior circumference of 6 1/4". The bracelet weighs a very comfortable 24 grams or 7/8 ounce and it is in excellent original condition with some very nice age-appropriate wear and a fine, soft, glowing patina.
This bangle bracelet is a very beautifully-crafted and very beautiful-looking jewel-like gem of a piece,
very satisfying to gaze upon at and even more delightful to wear.
Price $1,350
