Object Description
Maker:
Sonwai – Verma Nequatewa for Hancocks
Summary:
Multi Gem & 18ct Gold Cuff Bangle
Description:
An 18ct yellow gold and gem set cuff bangle, by Sonwai for Hancocks. The gently tapering solid gold cuff displays a mosaic of channel inlaid gemstone panels of various shapes and sizes, including turquoise, lapis lazuli, sugilite, spiny oyster shell and rosarita, interspersed with gold spacers.
Period:
Contemporary
Origin:
USA
Gems / Materials:
Turquoise, lapis lazuli, sugilite, spiny oyster shell, and rosarita
Setting:
18ct yellow gold, stamped 18k
The inside of the bracelet is stamped with Verma’s hallmark, “Sonwai,” and a butterfly. It is also etched “for Hancocks.”
Dimensions:
Width (at widest point): 3.6cm/1.41″
Internal circumference (excluding opening): 14.2cm/5.59″
Opening: 2.8cm/1.10″
Weight:
169.0 grams
Condition:
New
Director’s Notes:
This cuff is the first of a special collection of jewels made by Sonwai for Hancocks. Sonwai is the artist name of Verma Nequatewa, a Native American jeweller who worked with her uncle, the renowned jeweller Charles Loloma, before establishing herself in her own right in the late 1980s. She was born in 1949 and grew up on the Hopi reservation in Arizona where she still lives today and which she credits with influencing much of her work. “Charles taught that beauty is all around us on Hopi; in the environment, in the culture, in ceremony. By combining elements from what is a part of my everyday life, the finest of ideas, with the finest of materials, I can interpret a part of Hopi for people to see and wear.” Nequatewa is widely recognized as one of the leading Native American lapidary artists and jewellers working today. Her elegant and colourful jewellery can be found in select galleries, museums and private collections around the world and we are very excited to be one of those select few and offering these one-of-a-kind masterpieces.