Felsot Collection

The Felsot Collection

This unbelievable Antique Vintage Native American Jewelry Collection is from the personal collection of Barbra Felsot. Felsot had been in the Native American art and jewelry business for over 40 years, and only purchased the “best of the best” for her own personal collection. Upon her passing, Felsot's husband Mel offered to let us choose 100 extraordinary pieces to add to our already incredible inventory. The rest of her collection will be sold to Native American museums. Mrs. Felsot collection features some of the finest Royston, Carico Lake, Kingman, and Landers turquoise ever put into jewelry. These pieces range from concho belts, squash blossoms, cuff bracelets and rings. Don't miss out on this wonderful opportunity! These pieces of Americana will only increase in value over time.

In 1932, J.C. and Laura Zachary left their home in New Castle, Indiana and decided to head west to California. Along the way, the Zachary’s car broke down in Albuquerque, NM. They settled in the outskirts of the small town and procured management positions with the Hogan Trading Post located on US Highway 85. As many customers entered the post to have their Native American jewelry repaired, J.C. began to study lapidary stone cutting techniques to perform these repairs. He also taught himself silversmithing techniques with a blowtorch. J.C. soon became known as a premier stone cutter in the Native American jewelry business. Due to the popularity of the Fred Harvey’s train depots and the Grand Canyon Turquoise Jewelry Stores, J.C. and Laura opened a successful turquoise lapidary or stone cutting shop. It has been said they supplied the majority of stones used to create jewelry during the Tourist Indian jewelry boom of the 1930’s and 1940’s.

David Zachary was born into the family in 1942. At an early age, he became involved in the creation of Native American jewelry. After he returned from the United States Air Force, David set up his own lapidary stone cutting business. As some years passed, he enlisted Navajo artisans to make jewelry in a shop he opened on the Canoncito Navajo Reservation which was west of Albuquerque. With the popularity and growth of the Indian jewelry business, Zachary trained more than a hundred Navajo artists in the art of silversmithing, but encouraged them to “find” their own individual style. He himself lets his own imagination flow when creating his own pieces and has created many collector’s items.

The mineral turquoise is blue-green in color and is also known as hydrated copper aluminum phosphate. Deposits of turquoise have been found throughout the world. The Mesopotamian, Longshan, Harappan, and Egyptian cultures used turquoise for ornamentation; however, the southwest and central Native American cultures, where turquoise was used in abundance.

Turquoise was actively traded and clearly important to many prehistoric societies in the Americas, where it was used in jewelry, beads, pendants and inlay. There were turquoise mines throughout northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, including at least ten well-documented prehistoric mines in the Cerillos Hills near Santa Fe, New Mexico.