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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Any Jewelry, post: 1194307, member: 2844&quot;]It is a beauty, and I agree, Arts &amp; Crafts.</p><p>As Holly said, it is not spiderweb turquoise, spiderweb has interconnected matrix lines, which look like a spider&#039;s web.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/wink.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=";)" unselectable="on" /> This has black blotches, for lack of a better word.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is impossible to be absolutely sure about the origin. Just about all turquoise regions of the world have black matrix turquoise of that shade of blue.</p><p>What is important is to look at what kind of turquoise was mined at the time, and where.</p><p><br /></p><p>As hard as it is to believe now, at the time this brooch was made the US was the most unlikely source of turquoise.</p><p>Ca 1800 the last of the rich pre-Columbian mines were all but exhausted, the few stones that were found were extremely expensive and kept for the local wealthy. Ca 1850 they tried to find new sources of native turquoise, but all they found were small areas in places too remote to facilitate real trade.</p><p>In 1890 Juan Lorenzo Hubble began to import Persian turquoise into the US because of the lack of native turquoise. The mines which became so popular later on, were only found in the 20th century, often as a by-product of copper mining.</p><p>Export in the early 20th century would have been highly unlikely. There is still very little export of US turquoise now, most of it is used locally and exported in ready made jewellery.</p><p><br /></p><p>Although turquoise had been mined in Continental Europe for thousands of years, and was even found in Scotland at that time, this doesn&#039;t strike me as European turquoise.</p><p>I think your stones are Persian, just like the ones Hubble imported into the US.</p><p>Persia was the main exporter of turquoise in the world. Persian turquoise had a large range of shades of turquoise, not just the colour we now know as Persian blue. They also had matrix-rich stones, although through most of history pure, matrix-free turquoise was preferred.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Art Nouveau and Arts &amp; Crafts period saw an interest in stones that were regarded as &#039;natural&#039; and &#039;artisan&#039;. Matrix turquoises became accepted for their natural look. They were often used in the shape they had when they were shipped from Persia, and not matched, for a natural look.</p><p>The Persian cutter probably thought the stones would end up in earrings.<img src="styles/default/xenforo/smilies/smile.png" class="mceSmilie" alt=":)" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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