Perry Null Trading

The winner of the American vs Chinese turquoise battle?

...which ever color you like the best. We often hear customers tell us they want American turquoise, no Chinese. Since the days Chinese turquoise entered the American market, over 30 years ago, we have seen these stones go through a cycle. At first traders couldn’t believe the quality and color of these foreign rocks, rivaling some of our finest stones. Then Chinese turquoise flooded the market and it seemed Chinese turquoise was all that was being sold and the quality was becoming poorer and poorer. Today, you don’t see much Chinese turquoise, and the stones you do find are from an old source, not new. No matter how you feel about it, just like American rocks, you have some not so great and great Chinese turquoise.

I do not know as much as I would like about the Zuni culture, but I do know many Zuni people. The one thing that always comes to mind when I think of the people of Zuni is their friendly, peaceful, and very welcoming personality. It has always been a gorgeous place to take company and enjoy the wonderful Zuni tamales, and Zuni has such a rich history that it becomes very easy to want to know as much as possible about this historic pueblo. Of course I could not take pictures of all the beautiful things to be photographed in the Pueblo of Zuni, New Mexico but hope you enjoy the pictures while taking a break from reading the story.

What are Native American hallmarks

Hallmarks are used to identify the maker of a piece of art. Usually they are stamped or etched into the silver. Barton Wright’s book “Hallmarks of the Southwest” is often used as a reference, but will not have newer artists because the publication was last updated over 11 years ago. Also, “Hopi Silver” does a nice job of identifying hallmarks specific to Hopi artists. Both of these books are great tools to help you, but you are going to come across Native American hallmarks that are not identified in these publications. Next, you can turn to the internet to help, however that can become difficult because you don’t have a name to start the search with. Sometimes it can become very annoying because you just want to identify the art.