Nifty find out of a home. This is a vintage belt buckle, which could be used for a man or woman. It is made of one piece of real, carved, Mother-of-Pearl (MOP) shell with a metal piece attached for the portion that goes through the belt hole (this is a single piece of metal that has been curved around a notched area of the shell and hangs loose for use). The shell has been carved with the initials "U.S.N." for US Navy (United States Navy). You can feel the carved lines with a fingernail so this is not painted onto the shell. The interior of the carved lines has been blackened to stand out, as made.

The Mother of Pearl shell has been carved in a shield shape like that used with some US government and US Navy emblems. The buckle measures about 2 1/8 x 1 3/4 inches. Due to the curve of the shell this was made from, this piece does not sit flat but has a curved upwards, outwards or convex shape, sitting about 1/2 inch in height at its highest point. The top surface of the shell buckle is smooth and shiny with a nice iridescent look, it is possible that this side was treated with a top clear gloss or coating of some sort, we don't know. The edges of the carved buckle are smooth, as is the backside, but the back has the rougher finish as is commonly seen with the backside or inside of shells. We don't know what metal was used here (a magnet does not stick to this).

There is no manufacturer or country of origin marking. We believe this to be a handmade (hand made) piece, whether made for individual sale or by someone making this for a company to sell. The USN carving looks hand done from the style. You can see that the person who engraved this did the vertical line at the bottom end of the "S" a bit below the "S" itself, so it kind of looks like a comma here but we think this was meant to be the bottom line to this letter like appears on the other carved letters. We don't know when this was made but it does not appear new to us, so it is minimally vintage. This older belt buckle weighs about .4 ounce unpacked.

We've provided 8 images to show from varied angles and close-ups. Due to the smooth top surface this piece reflects room light and the camera light, so just sitting on a table in a room there is a highlighted light effect on this piece. Please use the zoom feature to examine closely.

Excellent condition with no chips, cracks or major flaws. The black interior to the carved USN letters is not a solid black, but this could be how this piece was made or some age wear to the black, we don't know, but you can see the initials well. As this was hand carved, there is a tiny touch of unevenness to the outer edge in one spot and on the backside there is a bit more carved out of two of the four corners of the interior open rectangle to the buckle (the maker may have chipped these corners a bit on the backside when carving, but there is nothing bad here and nothing that shows on the top side). There is some aging/wear/dotted wear on the metal hook piece but nothing unexpected and this helps support the age of the vintage buckle. There is a bit of other expected age/use/storage wear, such as some black dots/wear on the backside of the shell and perhaps other minor wear on the topside, but nothing to worry about here at all.

A great addition to any collection of US Navy memorabilia or a collection related to unusual belt buckles in general. Could also make a great gift for someone serving in or retired from the Navy.