Catalog number:
People:
Region:
Type:
Material:
Dimensions:
Condition:
Price:
Description:

JAMI/008
Navajo, Delbert Crespin
New Mexico, USA
Necklace
Spondylus shell, turquoise, silver, jet and clamshell
24 in. length, shell pendant 3in by 3½ in., weight: approx. 150 grams.
Very good
$950.
This type of necklace was introduced by the ancient cultures of the Southwest before European contact. Spondylus shell, a Pacific thorny oyster, was traded from South America and Mexico along a route that extended into the desert southwest. The orange red shell represented the Earth Mother and the turquoise represented Father Sky; the use of the two together denotes balance. Three strands of handmade-drilled disc turquoise beads of graduated sizes and varying natural hues are accented at the clasp by pink, hand carved spondylus beads and sterling silver beads. The large mosaic pendant is made of a whole spondylus shell, squares of flat turquoise and orange spondylus shell bordered with jet and clamshell mosaic. The turquoise beads are irregular due to their being individually made by hand and to the natural matrices found in the stone.