Roanhorse and Lincoln: Two Very Different Ambroses

Since the publication of Hallmarks of the Southwest in 1989 Ambrose Lincoln and Ambrose Roanhorse have been unfortunately described as the same person, which has caused their jewelry to be misidentified for decades. In fact, they were two distinctly different individuals. Although both were Navajo silversmiths, Lincoln was more than a decade younger than Roanhorse and worked in a different style.

So how did this happen?

In the beginning Ambrose Lincoln and Ambrose Roanhorse were listed separately, and on the same page, in the appendix of Navajo silversmiths working in 1940 in John Adair’s book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths:

In 1980 Mark Bahti published Collecting Southwestern Native American Jewelry, and incorporated an appendix of hallmarks for many prominent Native American silversmiths. He included the mark for Ambrose Lincoln:

Ambrose Lincoln mark in Mark Bahti's book.

But something went wrong during Barton Wright’s research for Hallmarks of the Southwest and he wasn’t able to discern that Roanhorse and Lincoln were two different people:

Lincoln/Roanhorse in Barton Wright's book.

Barton Wright made no corrections and continued to confuse the two Ambrose’s in the second edition of Hallmarks of the Southwest.

Wright’s entry of Roanhorse and/or Lincoln was debated among dealers and collectors for years, with the conclusion that they must have been two different silversmiths. Unfortunately once something appears in print it is then considered gospel and nearly impossible to correct.

Jonathan Batkin divulged much biographical information about Ambrose Roanhorse in his 2008 publication The Native American Curio Trade In New Mexico, also observing that John Adair’s field notes of 1940 identified Ambrose Lincoln as working at Zuni, and provided irrefutable evidence Roanhorse and Lincoln were not the same person.

Still the question remained, did Roanhorse sign with the A-in-keystone hallmark? If not, then how did he hallmark his work? The problem was solved when California Academy of Sciences made their collections database available via the Internet. CAS is in possession of the Elkus Collection, one of the most thoroughly documented collections of Indian art from the 1940s/50s era. In the collection are ten pieces of Roanhorse’s jewelry, three of which are hallmarked, here is a link to the Ambrose Roanhorse items in their collection, CAS Collections Database.

Once representative pieces of work with both hallmarks could be compared side-by-side it didn’t take much to figure out the rightful owner of each hallmark.

It is now abundantly apparent that Ambrose Roanhorse used a stick figure of a horse with his initials AR forming the legs…

Ambrose Roanhorse hallmark. — *Courtesy Karen Sires.*

and that Ambrose Lincoln signed his work with a capital A inside a keystone shaped design.

To further the argument, below are signed pieces of work by both men and a discussion of their styles and skills.

Ambrose Roanhorse was one of the most influential Navajo silversmiths of his time and became famous for hand wrought, traditional old style Navajo silver. When he used stone settings they usually consisted of one large stone set in the center of the piece. He was considered a master of his craft and won many awards for his hand wrought work; his plain silver concho belt took a first place ribbon at the 1956 Gallup Ceremonial. His work was highly prized and compared favorably alongside the highest quality master silversmiths of the time including Georg Jensen. While many pieces of his work do not bear his hallmark, they are distinctive for his use of bold, simple design and high quality of workmanship.

Here are two typical plain silver pieces made by Ambrose Roanhorse.

Silver fabricated bracelet by Ambrose Roanhorse in the style known as “Indian School” for its simplicity and for evoking the early phases of Navajo silverwork. Courtesy Karen Sires.

Silver concho pin by Ambrose Roanhorse. Courtesy Karen Sires.

Ambrose Lincoln, on the other hand, worked in the Gallup/Zuni area for C.G. Wallace and Charles Kelsey, among others, and most commonly produced cast silver pieces, often with turquoise channel inlay. At the 1956 Gallup Ceremonial, mentioned earlier in connection with Roanhorse, Lincoln won a second place grand prize for a bracelet with channel work inlay that was a collaboration with Zuni lapidarist Lambert Homer; thus establishing that Lincoln was an excellent silversmith in his own right.

Illustrated below are two pieces by Ambrose Lincoln.

Necklace by Ambrose Lincoln with sand cast Yei figures and Zuni turquoise channel inlay. Courtesy Karen Sires.

Fabricated bracelet by Ambrose Lincoln, with turquoise settings. Courtesy Karen Sires.

So, as we made clear in Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry, Lincoln’s jewelry, though good, should not be mistaken for Roanhorse’s (who was considered a master silversmith) nor should it command the same value as Roanhorse’s.

Following are short biographies of Roanhorse and Lincoln, more information is available in Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry.

Ambrose Roanhorse

Ambrose Roanhorse was born about 1904 near Ganado, Arizona and started learning silverwork at the age of nine by helping his grandfather, the famed early silversmith Peshlakai. Roanhorse moved to Santa Fe about 1928 where he worked at Southwest Arts and Crafts as a silversmith. He was hired as the first instructor for the silversmithing classes at the Santa Fe Indian School, where he taught hand forging methods from 1931 to 1939.

In 1936 Roanhorse became involved with the Indian Arts and Crafts Board’s program for promoting (and hallmarking) hand made Indian jewelry and in turn became Kenneth Chapman’s assistant, inspecting and stamping the jewelry that was submitted.

In 1939 Roanhorse was selected as director of the Wingate Guild, and left Santa Fe for the headquarters at the Wingate Vocational School. In 1941 the guild expanded to become the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild, where he served as assistant manager for a few years.

In 1954 Roanhorse was one of twelve American Indian artists honored (additionally Dorothy Dunn Kramer, an Anglo art teacher was honored) by the French government, awarded with the Ordre des Palmes Académiques, the French Republic Award for his distinguished achievements in silver work.

After retirement from the Bureau of Indian Affairs he continued to teach silversmithing at various venues. Roanhorse passed away in 1982 and is buried in St. Michael’s, AZ.

Ambrose Lincoln

Ambrose Lincoln was born in 1917, and graduated from Wingate Vocational High School in 1939, the term before Roanhorse became an instructor there. Ironically, Lincoln worked as the silversmithing instructor at Santa Fe Indian School in 1942, three years after Roanhorse left the position to work with the Navajo Guild.

Lincoln worked primarily in the Zuni and Gallup areas, in the 1940s for C.G. Wallace and Charles Kelsey.

Ambrose Lincoln died in 1989 and is buried in Gallup, NM.

Update August 2019: These hallmarks have been properly identified in the third and fourth editions of Bille Hougart’s Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog April 3, 2016.

Considering the Hallmark for Hopi silversmith Homer Vance

Besides discussing the history of hallmarks applied to Native American silver, one of the other topics we hoped to raise awareness of in Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry: Artists, Traders, Guilds, and the Government was that the style of jewelry that hallmarks are applied upon is just as important as the hallmark itself. To demonstrate the point we included as many examples as we could of jewelry made in differing styles by a single silversmith. We wanted to show the hallmark itself is only one key to attribution and verification when identifying hallmarked jewelry.

Reference guides devoted solely to hallmark identification, with a paragraph or less of biographical information, and no illustrations of typical jewelry made by the artist, are just that—guides to identification. Experience, perspective and logic are also required to make accurate attributions.

For instance, let’s consider the hallmark for Hopi silversmith Homer Vance.

Little was known of Homer Vance when Margaret Wright conducted her research prior to 1972 for Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing since Vance had died in 1961. Her sources of information for Vance’s hallmark entry were limited and included a survey of Hopi silversmiths conducted in 1941 by Alfred Whiting for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, John Adair’s 1944 book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths, and the Hopi Silver Project conducted by the Museum of Northern Arizona in 1938/1939. Wright listed Vance’s mark as “Not Definite,” indicating she knew he had a hallmark, but was unable to corroborate it. Here is the entry from the Third Edition of Hopi Silver:

Entry for Homer Vance in Wright's Hopi Silver.

By the time Barton Wright published Hallmarks of the Southwest in 1989 his research had revealed that Vance’s hallmark consisted of “Stamped initials in Gothic print,” suggesting a typeface that includes serifs, such as Times New Roman. However, the publisher chose to illustrate the mark with a sans-serif style, here is the actual entry from the book:

Homer Vance entry in Barton Wright's Hallmarks of the SOuthwest.

This unfortunate choice of fonts by Schiffer Publishing has caused considerable confusion ever since.

The Wrights discovered that Homer Vance was born into the Sun Clan in 1882 at Shipaulovi, started working silver around 1920, worked at various stores, including at the Grand Canyon for a year, and passed away in 1961.

Additionally, during our research we found Vance worked as an actor in western films, was employed as a silversmith in 1927 at R.M. Bruchman’s in Winslow, ran the shop Coolidge Indian Arts in Hollywood with his wife Sarah Coolidge until 1938 and demonstrated silver at the Golden Gate Exposition in 1939. Here is a 1936 advertisement for Coolidge Indian Arts:

1936 ad for Coolidge Indian Art Crafts in Hollywood.

So, from the foregoing information what kind of jewelry could one logically speculate Vance created during his career? First, think about the style of jewelry prevalent in the 1930s, especially in locations catering to tourists, such as the Grand Canyon and Hollywood; consider the jewelry made in the 1930s by Hopi silversmiths working in urban areas, such as Morris Robinson and Ralph Tawangyawma. It would most likely be typical tourist-style jewelry, with stamp work filling the empty silver spaces; perhaps a delicate bracelet for a woman’s wrist, with a turquoise setting on top of a split shank band. Something that looked Navajo and appealed to tourists.

Something like this:

Which happens to be hallmarked like this:

Hallmark used by Homer Vance. — *Hallmark used by Homer Vance*.

Considering this hallmark consists of the correct initials for Homer Vance, and the font is consistent with the time period (reference the H most often used by Ralph Tawangyawma), as well as the crescent mark above the initials that could easily represent the sun (for his clan), then this is the hallmark used by Homer Vance.

Yet a search of the Internet for “homer vance hopi” results in images of pins, pendants and belt buckles made in this style:

Cluster style pin not made by Homer Vance.

These pieces are typically 1970s in materials and construction, the large cluster work and wide sawtooth bezels are indicative of Navajo work, though it could also be Zuni. And they are hallmarked like this:

Hallmark used by an unknown Navajo or Zuni silversmith in the 1970s. — *Hallmark used by an unknown Navajo or Zuni silversmith in the 1970s*.

It’s not difficult to see how the entry for Homer Vance in Hallmarks of the Southwest has caused this erroneous identification, nor why dealers adhere to this attribution; except that Homer Vance was dead by the time these pieces were made.

Is it realistic to believe that a Hopi silversmith who worked during the height of the tourist era, and died in 1961, would have made Zuni style cluster work prevalent in the 1970s? No, it is not. And it is time to set the record straight. This hallmark was used by a Navajo or Zuni silversmith working in the 1970s, who has yet to be identified. It’s understandable how this hallmark could be credited to Homer Vance if the hallmark alone is used for identification, but much more difficult to justify the attribution once the style of jewelry is considered.

Just because pieces are signed HV does not mean they were made by Homer Vance. Just as not everything marked FP was made by Fred Peshlakai or Frank Patania. The lack of the identification of another silversmith who may have used these initials does not mean Homer Vance was the only Indian silversmith who ever used the initials HV as a hallmark.

A hallmark with no other information about the jewelry it is applied to is only a mark within a blank canvas, especially something as vague as initials, and there is nothing to guide in determining the maker without knowing the technical achievements of the artist. Though it may appear some hallmarks are self-explanatory, consider that they may be fakes, or they may have been used by someone else (perhaps even a relative) after the death of the silversmith.

For these reasons it should be cautioned that accurate attributions can only be made when the style and quality of the jewelry is considered along with the hallmark.

Update June 2016 – The third edition of Bille Hougart’s Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks has corrected the hallmark for Homer Vance.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog March 15, 2016.

In Defense of Barton Wright

There has been a tendency on the internet, specifically in FaceBook group pages, of American Indian art dealers and collectors referring to the late author and anthropologist Barton Wright as “Barton Wrong.” We can only assume this in reference to mistakes in his publications that have surfaced over the decades. Ironically, Barton would have been the first to admit there were errors in his books; even frankly acknowledging them in the introduction to Hallmarks of the Southwest:

Foremost among the points that must be kept in mind is the fact that this is not an exhaustive work but one, it is hoped, to which additional information may be added. Secondly the fact that there are errors in the data is fully recognized. However the impossibility of removing such errata is apparent when it may require a year to check out a single mark. The elimination of these mistakes requires the cooperation of craftsmen and those who work with them.

He not only understood, but recognized, that the research he conducted in the 1970s and 1980s would be built upon and corrected in the future. Yet, he continues to be criticized for those very errors.

The limitations in the scope and methodology of study available to Barton at the time of his research should be taken into consideration when judging the accuracy of his publications. Barton, and Margaret Wright in her own jewelry book Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing, did their research the hard way, before computers, the Internet or digital cameras. The work was long and painstaking back then.

It’s difficult for contemporary readers to comprehend the enormous task of constructing the original hallmark database in a pre-digital age. It’s also hard to think back to the time before the publication of any book containing hallmarks of Indian jewelry—as more than forty years have passed since the first printing of Hopi Silver—and how it would be nearly impossible today to reconstruct that data if it had not been recorded when it was. Where would the knowledge of southwestern Indian jewelry be now if it weren’t for the record of hallmarks that Barton compiled and published more than twenty-five years ago in Hallmarks of the Southwest? His work laid a foundation for further research and started dialogs that we all—collectors, dealers and academics—continue to this day.

It’s easy for people to criticize publications when they haven’t been through the rigors and sacrifices required to publish a book. We often think of a note that Barton sent us shortly before the publication of Hopi & Pueblo Tiles, where he stated, “I’m so pleased you are nearing your goal of a published book. I still think people who write books are masochists! And I suspect you will agree.” We are only now gaining a full appreciation for his use of the term masochist as we feel the occasional jab of criticism and controversy over our own hallmark book.

And it’s just not in the jewelry groups where people tend to disrespect Barton, it’s in the kachina groups as well. Why do kachina collectors feel the need to criticize his books? He only spent a lifetime studying, writing about and befriending the Hopi people. Some Hopis, such as Ross Josyesva, Jimmy Kewanwytewa’s stepson, believe that, “Barton knew more about Kachinas than most Hopis.” Barton’s Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls, published in 1977, was the first book to focus on identifying and collecting kachina carvings. What reference would collectors and dealers use if it weren’t for this book and the others that Barton published in his lifetime?

It is not merely disrespectful, but arrogant and rude to refer to a scholar who was considered the foremost authority on Hopi culture and kachinas in his lifetime as “Barton Wrong,” especially now that he isn’t here to defend his work.

A Tribute

Barton Allen Wright was born in Bisbee, Arizona in 1920 to Roy and Anna Wright; Roy was a miner and the family moved often while Barton was young. They eventually settled in Mohave County where he graduated from Kingman High School. Barton acquired a vast knowledge of northwestern Arizona, and held a pilot’s license for the Colorado River; from 1940 to 1942 he and a friend ran the ferry at the site that would become Davis Dam.

During World War II Barton served in the Army, seeing combat on New Guinea and in the Philippines. After returning home he married Margaret Nickelson and they raised two children. Also after the war, he graduated from the University of Arizona, trained in archaeology and anthropology. His Masters Thesis was on Catclaw Cave on the Colorado River, a site he dug in 1949 with his new wife Margaret and two friends. He then began his career as an artist for Arizona State Museum.

In the early 1950s Barton worked as the archaeologist at Town Creek Indian Mound State Park in Mt. Gilead, North Carolina, and later for the Amerind Foundation at an excavation near Tumacacori. The Wrights moved to Flagstaff in 1955 when Barton became curator of the Museum of Northern Arizona. In 1977 the Museum of Man, in San Diego’s Balboa Park, recruited him as the Director of Scientific Research. Retirement beckoned and six years later Barton and Margaret moved to Phoenix where he continued to research and write about the southwest.

Among his many accomplishments was a body of published work of over twenty books and numerous articles that he wrote or contributed to, as well as serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of American Indian Art magazine from it’s inception in 1974 until his death in 2011.

Barton was a long time student of southwestern Indian history, especially interested in the Hopi people and their religion. He was a talented painter and graphic artist who illustrated many of his own publications as well as those of other authors. He was a patient and kind mentor, never once doubting that Pat and I would contribute to the field of American Indian art, lack of academic degrees notwithstanding.

*Thanks to Alan Ferg for much of the biographical info above, some of which was published in Catclaw Cave.

See previous blog post for a listing of published works by Barton Wright.

Charcoal sketch of pueblo water carrier by Barton Wright. — *Charcoal sketch of pueblo water carrier by Barton Wright*.

Oil painting, "The Quiet Plaza" by Barton Wright. — *Oil painting, “The Quiet Plaza” by Barton Wright*.

Drawing of Patusunqola, one of the four chiefs of direction, by Barton Wright. — *Drawing of Patusunqola, one of the four chiefs of direction, by Barton Wright (signed “Tizhme” as a private joke)*.

Scratchboard by Barton Wright. — *Scratchboard by Barton Wright*.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog December 27, 2015.

Published Works of Barton Wright

(Compiled to the best of our ability, and likely incomplete)

Books

1962 – This is a Hopi Kachina, with Evelyn Roat. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona.

1973 – Kachinas: A Hopi Artist’s Documentary, illustrated by Cliff Bahnimptewa. Flagstaff: Northland Press, and Phoenix: Heard Museum.

1974 – Nampeyo, Hopi Potter: Her Artistry and Her Legacy, exhibition catalog. Fullerton: Muckenthaler Cultural Center.

1975 – Kachinas: The Barry Goldwater Collection at the Heard Museum, with Barry Goldwater and photographs by Jerry Jacka. Phoenix: W. A. Krueger Company and Heard Museum.

1975 – The Unchanging Hopi: An Artist’s Interpretation In Scratchboard Drawings And Text. Flagstaff: Northland Press.

1976 – Pueblo Shields from the Fred Harvey Fine Arts Collection. Flagstaff: Northland Press.

1977 – Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing.

1979 – Hopi Material Culture: Artifacts Gathered by H. R. Voth in the Fred Harvey Collection. Flagstaff: Northland Press and Phoenix: Heard Museum.

1982 – Year of the Hopi: Paintings and Photographs By Joseph Mora, 1904-1906, with Tyrone Stewart, Frederick Dockstader. New York: Rizzoli International Publications.

1986 – The Hopi Photographs: Kate Cory, 1905-1912, with Marnie Gaede & Marc Gaede. La Canada: Chaco Press.

1986 – Kachinas of the Zuni. Flagstaff: Northland Press.

1988 – Patterns and Sources of Zuni Kachinas, with Bill Harmsen and Clara Lee Tanner, illustrated by Reese Koontz. Denver: The Harmsen Publishing Company.

1988 – The Mythic World Of The Zuni, Frank Hamilton Cushing, edited and illustrated by Barton Wright. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

1989 – Hallmarks of the Southwest, in cooperation with the Indian Arts and Crafts Association. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

1991 – Kachinas: A Hopi Artist’s Documentary, illustrated by Cliff Bahnimptewa. Flagstaff, Northland Publishing, reprint of first published in 1973.

1994 – Kachina: poupees rituelles des Indiens Hopi et Zuni, exhibition catalog, 30 juin-2 octobre 1994, with Marie-Elizabeth Laniel-Le François, and others. Marseille: Musées de Marseille.

1994 – Clowns of the Hopi: Tradition Keepers and Delight Makers, photographs by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing.

1994 – Enduring Traditions: Art of the Navajo, with Lois Essary Jacka and illustrated by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing.

1997 – Pueblo Cultures, Iconography of Religions. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers.

2000 – Hallmarks of the Southwest, Revised & Expanded 2nd Edition. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

2003 – Esprit Kachina: Poupees, Mythes et Ceremonies Chez les Indiens Hope et Zuni. (Kachina Spirit: Dolls, Myths and Ceremonies of the Hopi and Zuni Indians). with Pierre Amrouche, Nathalie Rheims, Francine Ndiaye, Paris: Galerie Flak.

2006 – Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures, photographs by Andrea Portago, includes “Pueblo Cultures, An Essay” by the author. Albuquerque: Museum of New Mexico Press.

2007 – Hopi & Pueblo Tiles: An Illustrated History, Kim Messier and Pat Messier, Foreword by Barton Wright. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers.

2008 – Catclaw Cave, Lower Colorado River, Arizona, edited by Alan Ferg. Tucson: Arizona Archaeological Society; The Arizona Archaeologist No 37.

2014 – Kachinas: A Hopi Artist’s Documentary, paintings by Clifford Bahnimptewa, foreword by Ann Marshall. Albuquerque: Museum of New Mexico Press, reprint of first published in 1973.

Articles

1950 – “The Zanardelli Site, Arizona BB:13:12”, in The Kiva Vol 16, No 3, with Rex E. Gerald, The Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society.

1956 – “A New Pleistocene Bighorn Sheep From Arizona”, with Claude W. Hibbard, in Journal of Mammalogy, Vol 37, No 1.

1975 – “Hopi Kachina – Feather Controversy” in Ray Manley’s Southwestern Indian Arts and Crafts, Tucson: Ray Manley Photography.

1976 – “Anasazi Murals”, American Indian Art, Vol 1, No 2

1976 – “Kachinas” in Arizona Highways Indian Arts and Crafts, Clara Lee Tanner, ed. Phoenix: Arizona Highways

1976 – “Tabletas, A Pueblo Art”, American Indian Art, Vol 1, No 3.

1977 – “Hopi Tiles”, American Indian Art, Vol 2, No 4.

1979 – Book review of Hopi Painting: The World of the Hopis by Patricia Janis Broder, American Indian Art, Vol 4, no 4.

1980 – “Museum Collection: San Diego Museum of Man”, American Indian Art, Vol 5, No 4.

1982 – Book review of Southwestern Indian Ritual Drama, edited by Charlotte J. Frisbie, American Indian Art, Vol 7, No 2.

1984 – “Kachina Carvings”, American Indian Art, Vol 9, No 2.

1991 – “Initials, Symbols and Secret Codes”, Inter-Tribal America, Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial.

1992 – “Pueblo Shields”, American Indian Art, Vol 17, No 2.

1995 – “Clifford Bahnimptewa”, American Indian Art, Vol 21, No 1.

1995 – “Muriel Navasie,” American Indian Art, Vol 21, No 1.

2008 – “Hopi Kachinas: A Life Force” in Hopi Nation: Essays on Indigenous Art, Culture, History and Law, edited by Edna Glenn, John R. Wunder, Willard Hughes Rollings, and C. L. Martin. Lincoln: UNL Digital Commons.

As Illustrator

1959 – Master of the Moving Sea: The Life of Captain Peter John Riber Mathieson, from his Anecdotes, Manuscripts, Notes, Stories and Detailed Records, Gladys M. O. Gowlland. Flagstaff: J. F. Colton & Co.

1960 – Throw Stone, The First American Boy 25,000 Years Ago, E.B. Sayles and Mary Ellen Stevens. Chicago: Reilly & Lee Co.

1960 – Column South: With the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Suzanne Colton Wilson. Flagstaff: J.F. Colton & Co.

1962 – Little Cloud and the Great Plains Hunters 15,000 Years Ago, Mary Ellen Stevens and E.B. Sayles. Chicago: Reilly & Lee Books.

1962 – Seed Plants of Wupatki and Sunset Crater National Monuments with Keys for the Identification of Species, W. B. McDougall, Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin No 37. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art.

1964 – Grand Canyon Wild Flowers, W.B. McDougall., Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin No 43. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art.

1968 – The Age Of Dinosaurs In Northern Arizona, William J. Breed. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona.

1974 – Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing, Margaret Wright. Flagstaff: Northland Press.

1980 – Rivers of Remembrance, Diego Pérez de Luxán, Marilyn Francis. Quality Publications.

Discussed in:

1995 – Town Creek Indian Mound: A Native American Legacy, Joffre Lanning Coe. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog December 27, 2015.

The End of an Era

(This is Kim’s homage to the seminal magazine of Native American art research, which sadly ceased publication in 2015.)

In November 1975, when the inaugural issue of American Indian Art magazine was released, I was 14 years old, and Native American art was the furthest thing from my thoughts.

First cover of American Indian Art magazine.

Nine years later I made my first serious purchase of antique Indian art, a Hopi wedding basket from the 1920s, at an antique fair in Glendale, California (for $50, a bargain even back then, and a basket which is still in the collection, by the way). As Indian art grew from an interest, into a full-blown obsession, I became aware of the magazine. It was full of ads from prominent dealers and fascinating articles on things I could only dream of owning; I was enthralled well before I came to realize the significance of the articles and their authors. Pat and I subscribed and then searched for the back issues we did not have. I looked forward to every issue, it became an accomplice of my addiction, like the spoon that held the heroin.

Cover of the last issue of American Indian Art magazine.

Now American Indian Art magazine has announced it’s final issue will be published in August, after 40 years of quarterly publications, 160 issues in all. I will miss it with every fiber of my being.

For me, whose particular passion is historic southwestern art and the tourist era 1880-1940, there was always something to read and discuss in each issue, whether it was legal (NAGPRA) updates, book reviews or even the dealer’s ads. I also liked how professional it was, how it artfully walked the line between academia and popular writing; how, like no other periodical, it focused on antique Indian art (but not exclusively).

It could be said that American Indian Art introduced us to Barton and Margaret Wright, literally. If we had not devoured Barton’s article “Hopi Tiles”, especially the bibliography, in the Autumn 1977 issue then Pat would not have contacted Barton to ask where we could obtain Suzanne Love’s master’s thesis “Hopi Tiles”. In his gracious manner, Barton invited us to their home and allowed us to have a copy made of his personal copy of the thesis; this was the beginning of perhaps the most influential friendship in our lives, and one that would lead us to our own publishing adventures.

Hopi Tiles article by Barton Wright. — *We never did figure out why a Zia tile was the leading image of the article…*

It was one of my great desires to be published in American Indian Art. We actually had a brilliant idea, one that likely would have passed the prestigious editorial advisory board, but the timing was bad so we declined to move forward for professional and personal reasons. Now that dream has come to an end.

After August 1, 2015 there will be no more articles about historic Pueblo pottery, or Navajo weavings, katsina dolls, southwestern jewelry, Navajo horse trappings, Apache playing cards, Plains beadwork, California basketry, or hundreds of other aspects of American Indian art. Will these articles find a new venue or be relegated to obscure anthropology journals?

Publisher Mary Hamilton and staff (shout out to editor Tobi Lopez Taylor), should be congratulated for forty years of publishing success. But I’m too heartbroken to extend any other accolades. I have never known a time during my collecting/researching/publishing avocation that did not include American Indian Art magazine. Will there ever be another periodical to fill the very large void being left behind?

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog July 10, 2015.

Overlay is Not Always Hopi Made

The following article appeared in the March 2015 issue of the Indian Trader newspaper (however they cut two important images).

Overlay is a technique where two pieces of silver are soldered together after a design has been cut from the top layer. In the final phase of construction the bottom layer is blackened with a chemical agent allowing the top design to stand out. Though not exclusive to the Hopi, they have become so proficient utilizing overlay in their unique style of jewelry that it is commonly thought they are the only ones who practice this technique.

However, since the 1950s silversmiths from other southwest tribal groups have produced overlay jewelry of their own style that is sometimes mistaken for the work of the Hopi.

Overlay as a technique for conveying traditional Hopi designs in silver originated in 1938 from drawings produced at the Museum of Northern Arizona and continued in Fred Kabotie’s silver designs for the World War II veterans classes held from 1947-1951; though overlay was only one of many techniques taught in the classes by instructor Paul Saufkie. In 1949 the Hopi Silvercraft Guild was formed and by the mid-1950s overlay was the only technique used by Guild silversmiths as the use of sheet silver became commonplace.

*Overlay bracelets by (l-r) Paul Saufkie & Arthur Yowytewa, Wallie Sekayumptewa, and Douglas Holmes circa early 1950s.*

After the success of the Hopi Guild jewelry, in the 1950s many other silversmiths and shops incorporated overlay in their designs. About 1951 trader Dean Kirk of Manuelito, New Mexico, designed a series of overlay pins to be made by Navajo smiths in his employ that incorporated Hohokam and Mimbres designs. A 1958 newspaper advertisement for the shop Enchanted Mesa of Albuquerque promoted “Dean Kirk’s Navajo Overlay Silver”.

*Overlay pin featuring Hohokam pottery design made by Navajo silversmiths for trader Dean Kirk, 1950s.*

Also in the 1950s Woodard’s of Gallup adapted overlay designs used at the Hopi Guild and had them made into pins and earrings by Navajo silversmiths. One of their templates featured a Hopi water wave design and an area where one triangular turquoise stone would be set flush into one quadrant.

*Right pin possibly made by a Pueblo silversmith. Left pin, unmarked, using Hopi Guild design, made by Navajo smith working at Woodard’s. All pieces circa 1950s.*

One of the most recognizable designs to come out of the White Hogan shop in Scottsdale was a round overlay swirl design made into necklaces, bracelets, rings, and especially earrings. This swirl motif, originally adapted by Kenneth Begay from a design painted on a piece of Hohokam pottery, was reproduced by the owners of the shop for decades using mechanical casting techniques.

*Swirl design earrings and pendant and maze design ring cast by White Hogan from overlay designs created by Kenneth Begay.*

Over the years many noted Indian silversmiths from various areas of the southwest incorporated the overlay technique into their designs, including Santiago Leo Coriz and Vidal Aragon both of Kewa (Santo Domingo) Pueblo and Joe H. Quintana of Cochiti. Willie Yazzie Sr. (Navajo) learned to make silver at Dean Kirk’s shop in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and afterwards made many pieces of overlay jewelry utilizing Navajo designs.

*Overlay ram buckle by Hyson Craig (Navajo); bolo tie and mixed-metal wedding basket pin by Willie Yazzie Sr. (Navajo), all circa 1970s.*

Tohono O’odham silversmith Rick Manuel started experimenting in 1976 with the overlay technique, creating designs derived from his Southern Arizona desert home. His designs were so successful they have influenced other Tohono O’odham silversmiths, most notably James Fendenheim, who also works in the overlay technique.

*Overlay jewelry made by Tohono O’odham silversmith Rick Manual.*

The best way to determine if a piece is made by a Hopi silversmith is to look for a hallmark, as Hopi overlay is always signed. From the 1950s it was signed with two marks, the artist’s personal mark and either the Hopi Guild sunface mark or the shop mark for Hopicrafts (which closed in 1983).

*Overlay pieces circa early 1950s by Hopi silversmith Douglas Holmes signed with his Guild sunface mark and his personal mark of a butterfly.*

But by the mid-1990s young Hopi silversmiths were learning from other sources and did not form a relationship with the Guild, so it is less likely for pieces to also display the Guild mark after that time. Navajo and Pueblo silversmiths also typically signed their work, however if no hallmark is present then the piece still might have been made by a Navajo or Pueblo silversmith in the 1950s or 1960s era, or possibly even by an Anglo silversmith (even though Anglo smiths were more likely to produce in the 1970s and often signed their work). It is nearly impossible to attribute unsigned overlay work.

It should be noted that overlay jewelry is especially easy to reproduce by various methods of mechanical casting, and sadly many pieces of Hopi and Navajo overlay have been reproduced through the years. If reproductions are made from original hand made pieces that incorporate hallmarks, those hallmarks will often appear faintly or illegibly on the back of the reproduction.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog April 13, 2015.

Reassessing Native American Hallmark Books

Note: a shorter version of the foregoing appeared as a two part article in the August 2014 and September 2014 issues of the Indian Trader newspaper.

Sometimes it’s important to take a step back and look at the events preceding a particular situation to understand how it came about. For hallmarks used by deceased American Indian silversmiths, it can be a road map to discovering where misattributions began. The following is a complete chronology of books that depict hallmarks used by American Indian silversmiths.

Over forty years ago, in December 1972, Margaret Wright’s groundbreaking book Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing was published by Northland Press. It included the first visual representations of hallmarks used by Hopi silversmiths, over 150 marks were depicted in the first edition. Margaret Wright’s research started in the archives of the Museum of Northern Arizona and took her to the Hopi mesas where she recorded on sheets of copper the hallmarks used by all of the living silversmiths she could find.

In 1975 Barbara and Ed Bell published volume one of Zuni: The Art and the People with volumes two and three following on its heels. These volumes each profiled approximately fifty silversmithing families then working at Zuni and either discussed or illustrated their hallmarks.

Mark Bahti’s excellent book Collecting Southwestern Native American Jewelry was released in 1980 and included twenty-two pages of hallmarks used by American Indian silversmiths, for the first time from more than a single tribal group, as well as a page of shop marks.

Also in 1980 Gordon Levy published Who’s Who in Zuni Jewelry profiling sixty-eight silversmiths working at the time.

In 1989 Barton Wright, in association with the Indian Arts and Crafts Association, published Hallmarks of the Southwest with 140 pages of biographical entries and illustrated hallmarks for American Indian artists, mainly silversmiths.

These five volumes laid the groundwork for the current understanding of American Indian jewelry hallmarks.

Margaret and Barton Wright’s books have both been revised and expanded over the years as more information became available.

A Second Edition of Hopi Silver was released in October 1973, with a Third Edition published April 1982, which included additional hallmarks; the first three editions of this book featured blue covers.

The Fourth Edition of Hopi Silver came out in 1982, ten years after the original. This expanded edition, with a new burgundy color cover, contained additional pages of hallmarks.

Then in 1998 came the Fifth Revised Edition of Hopi Silver, with a complete design makeover of the contents and a cover featuring Hopi silversmith Pierce Kewanwytewa. It not only included over 100 new hallmarks but also an index of hallmarks by type, and new images of never before published jewelry (full disclosure: some of that jewelry was from our personal collection).

After Northland Press folded the Fifth Edition of Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing was reissued in 2003 by University of New Mexico Press with a new cover.

Also notable in 2003 was the publication of Hopi Silver in Japan with a completely different cover but retaining the same information and interior photos as the English language edition.

Barton Wright’s Hallmarks of the Southwest was significantly expanded for the second edition in 2000, and this has become the industry standard for hallmark identification. It remains in print almost two decades later.

In 2011 Bille Hougart self-published The Little Book of Marks on Southwestern Silver: Silversmiths, Designers, Guilds & Traders. The inclusion of actual images of hallmarks makes this book stand out from Hallmarks of the Southwest. However, many of the errors that occurred in Wright’s book are carried on in this volume.

Hougart released a revised edition in 2014 with the publication of Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks.

Gregory and Angie Schaaf published the first volume of the American Indian Jewelry series in 2004 with updated volumes 2 and 3 appearing in 2013 and 2014 respectively.

American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies
American Indian Jewelry II: A-L: 1,800 Artist Biographies American Indian Jewelry III: M-Z

These are excellent resources for the work and hallmarks of living artists, but are unfortunately replete with errors for many of the deceased silversmiths; errors which, in our opinions, have muddied the waters. For instance, in the first volume they write that Navajo silversmith Mark Chee, “worked as a bench smith for Frank Patania,” at the Thunderbird Shop. However our research found no link between Chee and the Thunderbird Shop, though we could confirm employment in Santa Fe with Julius Gans at Southwest Arts & Crafts before WWII and with Packard’s at Chaparral Trading Post after the war.

This is not intended as a shameless plug, but omitting Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry: Artists, Traders, Guilds, and the Government might seem like an oversight on our part. This was the biggest project we have ever undertaken, and are grateful for the opportunity to make crucial corrections; we also hope the book opens the door to further research.

Before the publication of Hopi Silver in 1972 the individual artists received little attention from the buying public. Therefore it was generally believed that Indian jewelry wasn’t hallmarked before the 1970s. This mistaken perception persists to this day, as some collectors and dealers are adamant that if a piece is hallmarked it must have been made after the 1970s because they are convinced artists did not sign their work before that time.

Yet individual silversmiths began to sign their work in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Navajo Fred Peshlakai has often been cited as one of the first silversmiths to hallmark his work. But it has also been documented that Juan De Dios of Zuni Pueblo used a chisel to stamp his initials on the back of some pieces in the late 1920s. Also Grant Jenkins, a Hopi silversmith, signed some of his pieces during his short career from 1924 until his death in 1933. Perhaps prompted by their Anglo employers, many silversmiths who worked in urban areas began signing their work in the 1930s, using symbols or their initials as identifying marks.

Most of these early hallmarks were not documented at the time because jewelry was usually considered as little more than curio items. This is why the research done in the 1970s and 1980s is so valuable today; it would be nearly impossible to reconstruct the information that was gathered three and four decades ago. Not only did it call attention to individual silversmiths for the first time, it also laid a foundation for further research.

Barton Wright was well aware his book contained mistakes, as he stated in the introduction to his first edition of Hallmarks of the Southwest:

Foremost among the points that must be kept in mind is the fact that this is not an exhaustive work but one, it is hoped, to which additional information may be added. Secondly the fact that there are errors in the data is fully recognized. However the impossibility of removing such errata is apparent when it may require a year to check out a single mark. The elimination of these mistakes requires the cooperation of craftsmen and those who work with them.

It’s unfortunate that later publications did not heed Barton’s warning of the mistakes in his book, because as Mark Bahti has observed, “Over time some writers have simply repeated what earlier writers said about artists, and in doing so, they unwittingly, even carelessly, repeated incorrect information. Factual information about some artists that was generally known in the 1940s and 1950s, even the 1960s, began to dissipate in a wave of digital repetition of errors.”

Some of the more pervasive mistakes in Hallmarks of the Southwest were misconstruing Austin Wilson for Ike Wilson (we blame C.G. Wallace for starting that confusion), attributing Ambrose Roanhorse’s stick horse figure hallmark to Fred Peshlakai (with the legs erroneously forming the initials FP), and the unfortunate mash-up of Ambrose Roanhorse and Ambrose Lincoln into one individual. While Mark Bahti in his 1980 book correctly identified the hallmark of a capital A in a keystone figure to Ambrose Lincoln, Wright later misconstrued these two Navajo silversmiths as the same individual who used the A in a keystone mark. Roanhorse actually used a stick figure of a horse whose legs formed the initials AR. This error has caused the work of Ambrose Lincoln, often consisting of cast pieces with Zuni style inlay, to be sold and priced as if the master silversmith Ambrose Roanhorse had made it.

It’s not hard to imagine how these mistakes came about in a time before the Internet. In the 1970s and 1980s the only way to communicate with traders and artists was by writing letters and hoping for a reply, or by traveling to their business or residence. As Barton wrote in his introduction, quoted above, it may have required a year or more for verification of a single hallmark. It was difficult, mind-numbing research, and one incorrect attribution from a trader with a faulty memory could have been the only attribution available at the time.

These are the kinds of inaccuracies that have haunted Indian jewelry for a very long time. During the past few decades new information has been uncovered, in large part due to the availability of historic documents on the Internet, which have contributed to the broadening of the knowledge of hallmarks applied to Indian jewelry. For instance, it is now possible to properly identify the hallmark used by Navajo silversmith Ike Wilson from a 1942 newspaper article about his accidental death at the hands of his wife Katherine; and by an advertisement placed in a 1976 issue of American Indian Art Magazine that shows Katherine was still using a bow-and-arrow hallmark long after her husbands’ death.

However, there are more corrections still to be uncovered and many unknown hallmarks that need to be identified. We will never cease researching hallmarks, even though our magnum opus has been published, we hope to continue to contribute to the research in the field.

In the summer of 2016 the publication of the Third Edition of Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, by Bille Hougart, provided the most accurate, reliable and comprehensive hallmark identification guide at that time.

However it was surpassed in March 2019 by the publication of the Fourth Edition, which is even more the most comprehensive, accurate and reliable hallmark reference ever published. Read why the following blog: The Definitive Hallmark Reference Guide and Why You Should Own It.

Postscript: One of the reasons we made a chronology for ourselves of hallmark books is so we could comprehend how accurate each publication might be. For instance with the Zuni books published in the 1970s by the Bells and Levy’s book from 1980, the authors went right to the Zuni artists currently working and asked how they signed. This means they had primary sources and there is no refuting their research. The same for Margaret Wright’s Hopi Silver concerning the artists who were alive during her periods of research, she had primary sources. However, it gets tricky for any researcher of hallmarks when the silversmith is deceased by the time they start their research. Then the researcher must rely on the memory of the artists family members or traders/dealers or the database of museum collections to determine accuracy of hallmark attribution.

Originally published on Goodreads.com December 20,2014, with revisions reflecting current information.

Caveat Emptor

Definition of Caveat Emptor from the Cornell University Law School web site:

Latin for “let the buyer beware.” A doctrine that often places on buyers the burden to reasonably examine property before purchase and take responsibility for its condition. Especially applicable to items that are not covered under a strict warranty.

And even more applicable to vintage, pawn or antique American Indian jewelry.

There is a distressing recent trend in the vintage American Indian jewelry market – that of applying faked hallmarks of highly collectible silversmiths to jewelry of dubious quality. This trend started some years ago with the fabrication of jewelry in the style of Charles Loloma to which fraudulent hallmarks were applied. That nearly ruined the market for Loloma’s jewelry as dealers and collectors that had been burned by fakes were (and still are) leery to consider investing again. And with good reason, those fakes will haunt the market for decades to come.

Example of fraudulent Charles Loloma hallmark. — *Above: Example of fraudulent Charles Loloma hallmark*.

Now this practice has extended to the application of fraudulent hallmarks of other important silversmiths, such as Ike Wilson, Fred Peshlakai, Preston Monongye and Frank Patania, to jewelry of poor quality, and often made by Anglo silversmiths.

It should be noted that this isn’t the first time fake Indian jewelry has flooded the market. Starting in the early 1900s and continuing for decades, the mass-production of machine made Indian style jewelry made companies like H.H. Tammen, Arrow Novelty Company, Silver Products, Bell Trading Company and Maisel’s financially successful while the native artists struggled.

Those who remember the “Boom” of the 1970s are also familiar with the reproductions of traditional Navajo silver by hippie silversmiths from the Pagosa Springs, Colorado region and the proliferation of Anglo made Indian style jewelry. Few of these pieces were hallmarked so many have passed, and continue to pass, as “old pawn.”

Also memorable was the preponderance of counterfeit Navajo spoons, most often in the style featuring the profile of an Indian in a headdress on the handle or with the word NAVAJO etched in the bowl, after the publication of Navajo Spoons in 2001. While fake Hopi overlay, with contrived hallmarks, and fake Zuni inlay, copied from vintage issues of Arizona Highways magazine have been imported from international (off shore and south of the border) locations, and sold online and in disreputable shops for over a decade.

Previously buyers could be assured of the authenticity of a piece if it bore the hallmark of a recognized artist, and it didn’t require them to have a great deal of knowledge about the history of Indian jewelry to feel comfortable investing in high quality jewelry. But now it’s becoming common to see hallmarked jewelry misrepresented as that of some of the most respected and highly collectible silversmiths. This doesn’t even take into account the misattributions by uninformed, or overly optimistic sellers, a practice which is rampant on eBay and internet auction sites.

eBay is no help in these matters. As much lip service as they give to stopping counterfeiters from selling through their website, they make it inordinately difficult for buyers to report sellers of fakes. One shouldn’t need to jump through hoops, nor spend hours on the phone, to advise eBay that someone is profiting from selling counterfeits on their platform. Even more frustrating is that spurious listings are rarely ended by eBay even after they have been reported.

So how can collectors protect themselves when thousands of dollars can be at risk on a single bracelet? First, caution is the key to online transactions, if it seems too good to be true, then it probably is. But most importantly, buyers should educate themselves and become familiar with the styles and workmanship of the silversmiths they wish to purchase. Faked jewelry will often not resemble the work of the masters in either style or quality. For collectors, working with a trusted dealer is essential in gaining the knowledge necessary to make informed purchases.

The artists whose hallmarks are currently being forged are deceased (convenient for the forgers), and their work commands top dollar. These artists did not become so respected, and their jewelry so highly valued, because they produced inferior work. These artists made jewelry of the highest quality. Contrary to opinions that even great silversmiths had bad days, substandard work is the hallmark of the amateur, inexperienced, or sloppy silversmith. Poor quality silverwork or low grade and treated stones should raise red flags right away that the artist was not a skilled silversmith.

The only way to combat the fakers is through knowledgeable buyers. Once everyone sees their forgeries for what they are, and their market dries up, then they will stop counterfeiting Indian jewelry and move on to something more profitable (and hopefully something you don’t collect).

Examples of recent forged hallmarks

NOT a hallmark used by Bernard Dawahoya.

NOT a hallmark used by Preston Monongye #1.

NOT a hallmark used by Preston Monongye #2.

NOT the shop mark used by Frank Patania or the Thunderbird Shop.

A poor attempt to fake the hallmark of Morris Robinson. — **Updated Dec 27, 2015** = Here’s a new one, a poor attempt to fake the hallmark of Morris Robinson.

**Updated May, 17, 2016** = This is definitely NOT the hallmark used by Hopi Harold Koruh.

By adding an H it make sit appear to be a hallmark used by an early Hopi silversmith…again, NOT Harold Koruh's hallmark. — And this is even more inventive, adding the H to make it appear to be a hallmark used by an early Hopi silversmith…again, NOT Harold Koruh’s hallmark.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog December 10, 2014.