Silver bracelet with HQ and a bird foot mark

[billandkathy]

Can anyone tell me anything about this mark? Can't find it or I'm not searching using the right characters. Thanks for any help!

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[turtle]

My hallmark books show this mark as belonging to the Hopi artist Harvey Quanimptewa Jr, from Mishongnovi village. He learned silversmithing at the Hopi Silvercraft Cooperative Guild, and began producing in 1976. He passed away in 1993.

It's a handsome bracelet.

[billandkathy]

Awesome, thanks so much. There is no mark on the bracelet for material, sterling etc. Does your book say what materials he used?

[turtle]

It's sterling silver. In my experience signed Hopi sterling silver overlay jewelry is commonly unmarked as to the metal content; often the only marks are those of the artist, and sometimes also a shop or guild mark. I'm not sure why, but that seems to be the tradition.

[billandkathy]

Awesome, thank you very much for the education. It is a very pretty bracelet. My wife loves it. Loves it more now that she has been able to look it up

[turtle]

You're very welcome, glad I could help. I completely agree, it's so rewarding to be able to know something about who made a piece. I wish I could answer more of the questions posted here, but I'm still learning too.

Forums like this can be a good source of info for everyone, if we all pool our knowledge. (Thanks Jason, for making this forum possible.)

[billandkathy]

We go to a great many auctions and have never looked at items like this because they weren't marked for content. I am kicking myself now because we have probably passed up really nice pieces because of that. I was just going through some of the other jewelry we bought with this bracelet and there is a graduated silver bead necklace and matching earrings that weren't marked that we could see. I just took the back off the earrings and they are marked. Have to try to get a photo of it later this evening. Each time we learn something like you've just taught it gives us another tool for our auction tool box and makes us smarter buyers. This is a nice forum.

[Grammy7]

I read something about this mark on the forum of this source, but I don't remember what was the name of the post

[koiyaletsnum]

This message is for billandkathy, on behalf of Harvey Quanimptewa Jr. I would like to say im very happy your wife loves her bracelet. It brings great joy to his family to know that people continue to love and admire his work. To answer your other question he always used sterling silver and sometimes gold but he only used gold for special orders. Im sorry he isnt here to thank you himself but I hope this thank you will do ... THANK YOU VERY MUCH