Diné Silver and Turquoise Squash Blossom Necklace [SOLD]

This Navajo-made squash blossom necklace features beautiful blue high-grade turquoise cabochons set in a traditional manner on silver squash blossoms which are secured in place on a double strand of handmade silver beads.  The turquoise cabs are graduated in size from larger ones at the area of the naja to the smallest ones nearer the end of the necklace. Each squash blossom has protruding silver blossoms. The squash blossoms are secured with a double strand of handmade silver beads.  The naja is elegant in its simplicity with two rounded silver bars enclosing a thin scored silver row. The ends of the naja each have a turquoise cab, and a large domed turquoise is suspended from the top of the naja.  This squash blossom necklace was made in the mid twentieth century.   

Provenance: This Diné Silver and Turquoise Squash Blossom Necklace was purchased by a Santa Fe medical doctor for his wife decades ago.  She is now in her nineties and is divesting of some of her jewelry.

What is a Naja? Early Diné-made jewelry contained elements that were borrowed directly from Spanish colonial and Mexican ornament. One of these items is the naja, a crescent form of Moorish origin. The Spanish conquerors in the Southwest outfitted their horses in elaborate silver ornaments-one of which was the naja that hung directly on the forehead of the horse as a part of the bridle.

Note: when we say Diné, as opposed to Navaho or Navajo, we are referring to the people and not the government.  Since 1969, their government refers to itself as the Navajo Nation.