Bisbee Turquoise Beads

Bisbee Turquoise Beads -

Now here is a rare set of Turquoise Beads - Bisbee Turquoise! These beads came out of a fantastic old Turquoise Jewelry collection Estell and I purchased over the winter. They came out of the shonto Indian Trading Post on the Northern Navajo Indian Reservation in the 1960's . They were sold for old Turquoise Jewelry at that time.

They were Santo Domingo Indian made as Bisbee Turquoise bead jatals or Jaw-cla's. These wonderful jatals are made of Bisbee Turquoise heishi beads and finished off on the bottom of each jatal with hand cut mother of pearl beads. The ends of each jatal or jaclaw are finished off with red mediterranean coral beads.

This set of Bisbee Turquoise Beads probibly took about 1 1/2 lbs of Turquoise to make and Bisbee Turquoise is very expensive. Realistically they should be worth about $4000.00.