What a wealth of interesting information you have provided. I appreciate you taking the time to do this.
I will not call mine QT, or anything specific. Would it be considered acceptable to list them in the Ethnic/Tribal category as well as the VIntage one?
Thank you again.
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Oh, you're very welcome! I'm currently sitting on a terrific pair of vintage, Native American sterling and turquoise earrings, because I can't find any information about the picto-marks on the back, marks which appear, to me, to be a pair of snake heads. It's very frustrating, isn't it, to think you might have something kind of special but then, to hit a wall, when you try to do research? I currently have e-mail inquiries out to two online sources which provide photos and attributions for many Native American signatures and picto-marks, but I haven't yet heard anything back from either of them, and so, the beautiful turquoise earrings sit in a little box, awaiting additional information! Oof.
As I say, from all of the reading I did, when I was researching several pairs of vintage sterling earrings, what I found was that, not just some, but most Native American-made earrings were left unsigned, unmarked, so it doesn't make sense to me that only signed pieces can be listed as Native American. Those concho earrings I currently have listed were purchased four decades ago, in a shop that sold nothing but Native American handrafted items, so I know that they are authentic, but they're unsigned! So I decided not to let the fact that they are unsigned deter me from listing them where I felt they belonged. I did note, in my "Item Description" area, that the earrings are unsigned, and I provided good, clear photos of them, front and back.
If I were listing your earrings, I'd list them as Vintage Unsigned Zuni Sterling Silver Concho Dangle Earrings ~ Clip On, if you have room for all of that verbiage. That complex inlay / multi-stone technique is just so typical of Zuni work, and IMO, you'd be safe in describing them as unsigned Zuni.
In re: to a category for your earrings ... I'm a fairly new seller here -- I've been at it for only about five months now -- and, sometimes, choosing a category and sub-categories seems to be the most troublesome thing I have to do when I list!
In my listing for the concho earrings I pictured in my last post -- as well as two other pairs I currently have listed -- I've got them categorized as Jewelry & Watches > Ethnic, Regional & Tribal > Native American > Earrings. The thing is that, if you change Ethnic, Regional & Tribal to Vintage & Antique Jewelry, the only available sub-category for Native American jewelry is Native American (pre-1935). The other two options there, which might, theoretically, be useful, are Southwestern and Other Vintage Ethnic Jewelry.
However, in an attempt to determine the manner in which I should categorize my own listings, I've spent some time, here on eBay, looking at other vintage Native American jewelry listings, and here's what I've found: The vast majority of sellers seem to use the Jewelry & Watches > Ethnic, Regional & Tribal > Native American > Earrings category, not the Jewelry & Watches > Vintage & Antique category, and so that's what I've done, as well. Additionally, using the word vintage in your listing title is, I think, a good alternative to having to tie yourself into knots, trying to figure out how to shoehorn your 1950s-1980s Native American jewelry into a Vintage Jewelry category. I suppose a third option would be to list your earrings under two categories, if you're up for paying the fee to do that.
One final note: Don't forget to mention, in either the listing title, or the item description, or both, that your earrings are clip-on style, because, in my experience, Native American clip-on earrings are a bit unusual, and some potential buyers might fail to look closely at all of your listing photos, and might miss the fact that they are clip-ons, and not post, earrings.
