Can anyone help me identify a southwestern hallmark on a necklace I recently acquired? It looks like a half sun with 6 rays on the top and the word sterling under the half sun. I was told that this could be from a line that J C Penneys commissioned from native Americans when they opened their store in Tucson - the line was called the native American Collection according to the seller... but I cannot find anything on this line when I search the internet. It is also not in my Hallmarks of the Southwest book. Any info would be appreciated. The piece has a beautiful turquoise heart at the bottom with variscite stars and spiny hearts leading to the heart. Only the heart is stamped with this sun hallmark. Thanks for any info -

Does Hopi jeweler Merle Namoki look anything like it?

more Silversmiths

It is similar - but my necklace hallmark has a total of 6 rays above .thanks so much for the idea - please let me know of any other possibilities... or if you know of any place to look for hallmarks - surely there is some type of registry for all the native silver hallmarks. My book is not complete - it seems like every time I need to find a hallmark it is not in it...

Try doing searches for the Sun's Forehead Clan. As I was checking through my bookmarks for that particular symbol, it was mentioned somewhere that that symbol - the sun forehead - is used by several artisans from that clan of Hopi tribe members (I have so many bookmarks, I'll try to find it again & post it here for you). It wouldn't surprise me if there were slight variations on that same theme within them.

The following is regarding a different bio from the same website I posted earlier:

...Weaver lives in the Second Mesa village of Shungopovi, is a member of the Sun's Forehead Clan and uses the Sun's Forehead as his hallmark...