Buying vintage native american jewelry

Beautiful old Native American jewelry pieces are no longer spending
time in a dusty jewelry box. These pieces are highly sought after by
collectors, for either pride of possession or for investment. There are
things to know before making you're purchase in vintage Native American
jewerly. Most importantly is to know the piece is truly vintage. There
are many pieces geing from the orient that are good knockoffs of the
real thing. You will want to look for and identify any makers marks.
There are a number of books and sites for you to study the old artists
and their work. Very few older pieces were marked for the metal
content, If the piece is truly old and you are purchasing it from a
reputable seller, you will see " coin silver or better " used in their
ad. One of the questions I get asked often, is the use of rolling logs
as symbols. This symbol looks exactly like a German swastika, but had
noting to do with that history. The Native Americans considered this
shape to be a lucky symbol, it was believed to wisk away any bad
spirits. Also called " Whirly gigs" and " Broken arrows " You're most
important consideration is to know the mine the turquoise used in many
of these pieces came from. For example, Carico Lake truquoise, has
brown or khaki matrix running through it, as opposed to black. Morenci
turquoise has silver Pyrite matrix that when polished looks almost like
silver and Royston turquoise is almost always a deep green with heavy
brown matrix. Old turquoise takes on the bodys natural oils and begees
even more beautiful then when mined! Once again, with a little home
work you can
learn much about the different grades and colors this beautiful stone
gees in. Having collected and sold old Native American jewelry for
many years, I can truly say I find it to be the most interesting
collectable jewelry of this era. This jewelry is not only a great
investment, but a joy to wear!