Trying to find out about a few things ...

[Tzvia]

I bought this ring a few years ago while on vacation in CO and I guess I am trying to find out what I can. The shop was clearing out a few things it got from another shop that had closed and had no info on it. It appears to say Zuni, and below, either L E or L T, hard to say.


The stones stand quite high and I don't know what those metal bands are made of (copper? gold?):


The back:

I've been all over the 'net' and have yet to come across anything similar.

I also picked up this fetish necklace at the same time. I don't know if someone slapped two different unrelated bits together or what:


The pot fetish is not on silver, but some off-white cream material, can't tell what it is, maybe shell? I have no idea. It's marked M R.

Can anyone offer any ideas on what this is? I don't even know if it's Zuni or something totally different.

[Lady Ashmire]

That kind of inlay is definitely typical of Zuni-style work. I found a mention of a Lee Edaakie which might match the first set of initials, but am not sure if this is his.

[Aguest]

I saw a ring similar to this and it is attributed to Lee Edaakie inscribed "LE" and "ZUNI" in a distinctive cursive script, I have a similar ring with "LE" and "ZUNI" inscribed twice as well as a "STERLING" in the same cursive script, I read that Lee Edaakie had an exceptionally long career and his earlier pieces from the 1930s and 1940s are unsigned, but the pieces similar to yours and mine seem to be from the 1970s and 1980s as he lived and worked until 1984 :





The "L" is quite distinctive, the above signature having been positively identified as Lee Edaakie, it seems a match for the signatures on our pieces ::