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A very beautiful vintage Pueblo Indian silver
wire and Bisbee turquoise bracelet, c.1950’s
Now here is a really lovely and rare thing. The finest Pueblo Indian silverwork is well-known and very highly regarded for its delicacy, a certain lightness of form and the frequent use of hand-drawn silver wire accents or decorations.
In the case of this unique bracelet, the silversmith has taken the use of hand-drawn silver wire to a complete extreme, fashioning the entire bracelet from strands of silver wire in a beautifully creative and stunning manner. The execution has a swoopingly Modernist appearance which very nicely showcases the slight irregularity and unevenness of the hand-drawn silver wire, so that it looks daringly modern and charmingly rustic all at the same time.
The silver is perfectly set off and accented by six small, beautiful, matched, slightly graduated in size and very intense blue Bisbee Arizona turquoise stones, three on the top and three on the bottom, offset from the center on either side in a very unique and visually dynamic presentation. Bisbee, Arizona turquoise is one of the finest and most coveted varieties of turquoise in the world, known and esteemed for its incredible, penetrating blue color and its deep dark “lavender” blueish-purple-grey-brown matrix. In another very interesting and beautiful detail, there are two sections of the silver wire in the center of the bracelet’s “shank” that have been very finely and subtly decorated with precisely executed chisel work accents.
The bracelet measures just slightly under 1 1/2” in width at its widest point. The inner circumference end-to-end is
5 5/8” with a 1” gap between the terminals for a total interior circumference of 6 5/8”. It weighs an extremely comfortable and wearable 38 grams or 1 3/8 ounces. The bracelet is in excellent original condition overall; one of the six turquoise stones has a crack across the middle and another has a small crack at the end, but they are completely safe and secure in their bezels.
Fashionable. Beautiful. Historic. Modern. Timeless. An absolutely delightful and completely compelling combination.
Price $1,250
