The late Ellen Quandelacy became iconic for wonderful old-style horse carvings. Her special talents included creating incredible inlay jewelry to carving animals like equines that are super popular, hard to find yet easy to identify thanks to a singular style. She and her sister Annie Quam Gasper were both known for making jewelry sometimes collaborating. When carving, she always denoted the gender in her equines as well as other domestic animals.
We're honored to share a collectible, circa 1990 single strand Horse necklace by Ellen Quandelacy that's about 32" long. The center stallion pendant from turquoise that itself is about 1 1/8" long, 1 7/8" wide and 3/8" deep, has a gorgeously carved naja or crescent shape on the pendant, a unique design the Quandelacy family is known for. Ellen sculpted the naja right into the stone's center instead of attaching a metal bale. This style was started by her father the late Johnny Quam.
The other equine friends were sculpted from refreshing watermelon serpentine, rich pipestone, bold jet, serpentine, handsome Picasso marble and iridescent gold lip mother-of-pearl shell. They average from approximately 7/8" to 1 1/8" long (top to bottom), 1 3/8" to 1 3/4" wide from head to tail, and 1/4" to 3/8" deep. They are beautifully strung with fine turquoise and baby olive heishe. Each horse has expressive eyes from jet paste. The artist's sterling silver stamped signature label is attached to silver tips that themselves are 7/8" long. A Pueblo wrap or whipping wrap is from sturdy interwoven thread without any metal clasps. Please note: one of the pipestone horses was nicely re-glued at some point in time, not an uncommon occurrence given the age of the museum-quality necklace. It's been said that if an animal carving breaks, they're taking a hit and protecting the wearer.
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