Caring For Your Vintage Native American Jewelry Collection
When caring for your Vintage Native American artisan jewelry, there is "personality" to be considered. An old pawn Navajo bracelet with extensive stamp work will, more often than not, be covered in age patina. This is the discoloration sterling takes on simply by being exposed to the atmosphere. The more the piece is worn, the heavier the patina, as skin oils add to this discoloration. The darkening of the sterling adds to the stamp work's "depth" thus the bracelet's design will "pop"; the patina naturally gets rubbed off by clothing that comes in contact with the raised edges of the stamp design, leaving the recesses of the stamping darker, enhancing their definition. Acquiring a warm age patina on detailed stamp work takes many years, yet the process can be accelerated if the piece is worn regularly.I was recently in negotiations to acquire a Navajo handcrafted necklace. The seller thought they would do me a favor and polish it to within an inch of it's life. The sale fell through, as the necklace appeared to have just come from the artisan's shop-it no longer had the personality of an older work.When considering another acquisition of an old pawn Navajo Pendant, the seller stated his intention to "dip" the piece in liquid sterling cleaner, so it would look "nice" for me when I took delivery. Had he done so, not only would the hard-won patina have been erased, but the marvelous #8 mine stone would have been damaged with little to no hope of repair.Sterling is vibrantly shiny when polished, and I remember my mother regularly tossing her rings into a glass of liquid sterling polish. They would emerge looking like they had just been purchased. This is a preference thing; some like shiny, some like personality.I strongly advise anyone against polishing their Vintage Native American pieces. Your collection is going to change over time and when you are trading with another collector or offering one of your pieces for sale, having the age patina in place is a powerful bargaining chip.
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