That's Another Story

     How many good stories do we have?  This is one of my best. It’s about finding a beautiful turquoise and silver necklace in a box of hand-me-downs.  Probably 1954 or ‘55.  That would make me thirteen or fourteen.  Not yet in high school.  The box came to us in Elko, Nevada from Mom’s aunt, Irene Stanworth, Canoga Park, California.  The exotic necklace stayed in Mom’s top dresser drawer for the next fifteen years.

   In 1972, Mom and Dad made their first visit to Albuquerque.  My husband, Doug, and I were in graduate school at the University of New Mexico.  I was doing coursework for a masters in language arts and literature while he was working on a PhD in geology.  We were spending our summers camped in the Nacimiento Mountains, Doug’s field area.  In our spare time we would be truck camping all over the state, learning the geology and loving the geography.  During winters at the university we immersed ourselves in the arts, crafts and literature in, truly, the Land of Enchantment.  

    After going to Navajo rug auctions at Crown Point, I recognized that Dad’s favorite red and gray striped saddle blanket was Navajo.   After visiting a number of trading posts and traditional shops selling old pawn, I told Mom, “When you guys come to Albuquerque, bring that turquoise necklace.  I’m pretty sure it’s valuable.”

     She did.  It was.  We took it to a reputable dealer in Albuquerque, Price’s All Indian, where it was appraised for $1500.   Mom loved owning the necklace and telling the story.  “Mind you, it came in a box of hand-me-downs!”  She seldom wore it.  Neither did I.  She had given it to me after Dad died in 1987.  It was too much.  Too beautiful.  We no longer lived in New Mexico.  It didn’t feel right.  

     In 2010, I began a correspondence with a respected dealer in vintage Native American jewelry in Tucson.  He bought the necklace for $4,000 on the basis of the 1972 appraisal and the photograph I sent.  There was one other thing. He said he only collected pieces that “had provenance.”  I am in the process of learning that the spectacular necklace had a hell of a lot of provenance.  That's another story.