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An exceptionally fine old Navajo ingot-silver cuff bracelet set with a beautiful large “Arizona Rainbow” petrified wood stone, c. 1920’s
This bracelet is essentially a beautiful historic portrait in silver and stone of the colorful desert landscape of the American Southwest. The “Arizona Rainbow” petrified wood stone is possessed of a vividness and beauty of color that is
not often seen and which perfectly evokes the ancient desert landscape of the Northern Arizona mesa and desert country where this petrified wood is primarily found, the so-called “Petrified Forest” region located around and between Holbrook and Winslow, Arizona. It was formed around 225 millions years ago during the Triassic Period when only the earliest dinosaurs roamed the earth about 120 million years before the fearsome large Tyrannasaurus Rex came upon the scene.
So evocative is this bracelet of a particular time and place that you can easily imagine the scene of its acquistion as
going somewhat like this: It’s a hot July afternoon in the summer of 1930 and you’re riding on the Santa Fe Super Chief train westbound from Chicago to Los Angeles and the train has just passed through the Petrified Forest region in eastern Arizona and now you’ve just pulled into The Fred Harvey Company’s newly opened fancy La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona for lunch. After a very civilized and delicious meal, this is just the sort of bracelet you might have treated yourself to at the hotel’s Indian trading post as a treasured keepsake of your journey.
The split silver shank of the bracelet is beautifully hand-wrought from cast ingot-silver most likely from melted-down American and/or Mexican silver coins which were a very valuable commodity in Navajoland during this time period. The large, central assymetrically-shaped petrified wood stone is mounted atop the bracelet's shank on a beautifully made silver bezel platform onto which is placed an old style plain “foldover” type silver bezel in which the stone is actually set. The stone
is very nicely accentuated all the way around by a finely done thick twisted-silver wire surround. There are beautifully hand-fashioned large fluted and domed silver buttons on either side of the stone and extending down both sides of the bracelet from the stone to the terminals are rows of precisely done very delicate stamp worked designs. There is definitely an extraordinary amount of difficult and dedicated hand craftsmanship contained in this bracelet. It speaks to having been made by an older completely traditional Navajo silversmith with decades of experience.
The bracelet measures 2 1/8” in width at its widest center point and tapers down to 5/8” in width at the terminals.
The inner circumference is 5 3/4” end-to-end and the gap between the terminals is 1 1/8” for a total interior circumference of 6 7/8. It weighs a comfortable and extremely easy to wear 77 grams or 2 3/4 ounces. The bracelet is in excellent original condition, particularly for its 100 or so years of age. There is a very slight irregularity or groove in the center of the stone, but this is a completely natural part of the stone and not an indication of any damage. Also, the bracelet’s terminals are just a bit misaligned, but this is of no consequence.
This bracelet is a striking and beautiful piece of precious historic Native jewelry which perfectly
and uniquely captures the beauty of our spectacular Southwestern landscape and the fascinating nature
of its interesting early 20th Century history.
Price $2,950
Views of petrified wood logs in The Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona.
Top photo source and © Wanghan Li/Pinterest. Bottom photo source and © Arizona Highways Magazine.
