VINTAGE STERLING SILVER NATIVE AMERICAN SIGNED J W BEGAY TURQUOISE PENDANT


VINTAGE STERLING SILVER NATIVE AMERICAN SIGNED J W BEGAY TURQUOISE PENDANT

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VINTAGE STERLING SILVER NATIVE AMERICAN SIGNED J W BEGAY TURQUOISE PENDANT :
$20.50


VINTAGE STERLING SILVER NATIVE AMERICAN SIGNED J W BEGAY SLEEPING BEAUTY TURQUOISE SET IN SAW TOOTH BEZEL SOUTHWESTERN NATIVE AMERICAN DESIGNS PENDANT 1 1/2 INCHES LONG 6.34 GRAMS NECKLACE CHAIN 18 INCHES LIVIOR MADE IN ITALY IN PERFECT CONDITION WITH THE offerDING STARTS AT .99The world has had a fascination forturquoise for over 7000 years. The oldest known example of any jewelry was acarved turquoise and gold bracelet found on the mummy of an Egyptian queen. Inthe American Southwest, Native Americans have mined turquoise since prehistorictimes. Many legends surround turquoise, it is believed to bring good fortuneand health. While turquoise was once used as currency in the AmericanSouthwest, it has been treasured as an adornment throughout the centuriesworldwide. the evolution of turquoisejewelry from its appeal as southwestern, Native American or tourist jewelry, toone of the most coveted gems set in designer jewelry worldwide. Coveted, thatis, only if you are talking about true, genuine turquoise. And so our turquoiselove story continues. While the demand for turquoise has increaseddramatically, the supply of genuine turquoise is limited. I

From it\'s humble begginings SleepingBeauty Turquoise from Arizona has become one of the most important Turquoisemines in the world. Sleeping Beauty Turquoise was first found by the NativeAmericans during the Anasazi times. At this time the Turquoise was mined withhand tools and little bits were collected at a time. The baby blue or\"Robin\'s Egg\" blue Turquoise was mainly used as beads and on shellsthat the Native American tribes of the Southwest had traded for with the NativeAmerican tribes of central and south America. Sleeping Beauty Turquoise alsomade its way to Pueblo Bonito during the Anasazi times along with Turquoisefrom other deposits in the Southwest. Pueblo Bonito served as a trade centerfor Anasazi Turquoise for North American Tribes, Central American Tribes and SouthAmerican tribes. Since this time, the Sleeping Beauty mine was developed byAnglo peoples in search of Copper and other meetal ore. The Turquoise was undercontract by Monty Nichols. Nichols is said to have \"Torn down amountain\" to find the famous Sleeping Beauty Turquoise, which is a figureof speech, not an actuality to show how much work the miner has done to get thestone that has become an icon in the gem industry.

The famous Sleeping Beauty Turquoisewas actually re-discovered by accident. The mine was opened to pull copper andgold and it wasn’t until relatively recently (1900s) that the first Turquoisestones were discovered by Anglo miners. Even in rough form, the stones arevibrant and bright, even more blue than the bright Southwestern sky overhead.The miner Monty Nichols began marketing Sleeping Beauty Turquoise as anaffordable Turquoise. The Sleeping Beauty Turquoise mine was producing plentyof stone which in the early days was mainly tumbled into nuggets, cut in half,backed and sold as \"nugget cut\" cabochons. If you look in pawn shopsand in classic Turquoise books and magazines you will see a ton of thisjewelry, which is mostly Sleeping Beauty Turquoise Jewelry or Kingman Turquoisefrom Arizona. Due to the amount of Turquoise the miner ended up running into hewas able to sell the Turquoise at an affordable price in order to promote themine and to make the Sleeping Beauty Turquoise name a house hold name. Thegemstone got its name from the mountain where it is mined, whichresembles a sleeping woman laying on her back with arms crossed.


VINTAGE STERLING SILVER NATIVE AMERICAN SIGNED J W BEGAY TURQUOISE PENDANT :
$20.50

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