Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild

The foundation for an arts and crafts guild for the Navajo tribe was laid in 1939 when a crafts program was established at Fort Wingate, New Mexico with assistance from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Ambrose Roanhorse was selected as director of the project, the purpose of which was to provide employment for those who had learned silversmithing at federal Indian schools as well as for established silversmiths in the vicinity. Roanhorse distributed supplies on the reservation and collected finished work to be sold through the guild. By 1940, with the help of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB), the program was established as the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild (NACG), though it was not formally chartered by the tribal council until 1941, at which time it moved to Window Rock.

Bolo, buckle and cast pins made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s. — *Bolo, buckle and cast pins made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s*.

Silver was produced either at the guild shop, in the homes of the craftsmen, or at community workshops established on the reservation. Materials and supplies were issued only to craftsmen who could meet the standards and requirements for quality established by the guild. These standards were similar to the stringent standards set in 1938 by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board silver stamping program (which meant no power-driven machinery nor sheet silver could be used in the production)[see Note * below]—though craftsmen having their own materials, supplies, and workshops could offer their products for sale to the guild. Full-time managers were hired, and one of the first was Anglo anthropologist John Adair.

Two bracelets made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s. — *Two bracelets made for the Navajo Guild 1940s-1950s*.

In his 1944 book The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths, Adair wrote,

The purpose of the guild is to increase the tribal income from the sale of arts and crafts by promotion of fine handicrafts which will sell in quality stores in the East, Middle West, and Southwest. The tourist market is purposely avoided, as it does not yield as high a return per man hour as the more exclusive stores and shops. The type of silverware that the guild promotes is similar to that which has been at the Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Fort Wingate Indian schools; a revival of the old simple types of jewelry, without sets for the most part. Emphasis is placed on cast work. The guild also handles vegetable-dyed rugs and some aniline-dyed rugs of similar pattern and excellent workmanship. (pg 209)

Two of the “quality stores” who purchased from the Navajo Guild in 1947 were Marshall Field’s and Tiffany’s.

In 1943 the United Indian Traders Association (UITA) complained that the guild was in direct competition with the traders. The controversy continued in 1946 during the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial when Arthur Woodward, one of the judges of the silversmithing division, was shocked to learn that the craftsmen who worked with the NACG were not permitted to submit their work for competition. The Ceremonial board contended the Navajo Guild was government subsidized and should be disqualified; Woodward refuted their claim in an open letter published in the Gallup Independent newspaper, saying that guild craftsmen were in business for themselves and questioned whether the Gallup traders feared their silver would fare poorly in competition with the silver made by guild craftsmen.

Despite complaints from the reservation traders, the guild continued to succeed and grow; Ned Hatathli was named the first Navajo manager in 1951. In 1964 the guild opened its first branch at Cameron, Arizona, under the management of Kenneth Begay. By the late 1960s the NACG had added branches at Betatakin (Navajo National Monument), Kayenta, Teec Nos Pos, and Chinle.

In 1971 the guild became the Navajo Arts and Crafts Enterprise (NACE) and continues to be the only Navajo Nation–owned business engaged in the purchase and sale of Navajo-made arts and crafts.

The title “Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild” and its Horned Moon logo were registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1943. Items made through the NACG were hallmarked with the Horned Moon logo and often included the word NAVAJO. Sometimes individual silversmiths’ hallmarks are also found on these pieces.

Navajo Guild hallmarks on the back of the two bracelets above.

Note* For discussions of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board silver stamping program that ran from 1938-1943 see Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry by Pat & Kim Messier, Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks by Bille Hougart, and The Native American Curio Trade In New Mexico by Jonathan Batkin. IACB numbers were assigned April 1938, but the Navajo Guild at Fort Wingate was assigned US NAVAJO 70 in March 1940.

Two pins marked U.S. NAVAJO 70 made for the Navajo Guild at Fort Wingate.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog October 19, 2017.

The Rediscovery of a “Lost” Hallmark

Every once in a while a hallmark from decades ago surfaces that has no recorded identification or attribution. When confronted with the task of identifying these challenges we delve into our research and memories to try to find the proper identification. The task can often be mind-numbing and impossible to solve, but sometimes it’s a relatively easy assignment.

For example, on Facebook recently American Indian art dealer Karen Leblanc posted images of this old hand hammered Navajo silver tray.

Early silver footed dish. Photo courtesy Karen Leblanc.

Along with an image of the hallmark on the back.

Hallmark on back of silver dish. Photo courtesy Karen Leblanc.

Even though the hallmark was not stamped cleanly and is a little vague on one side, it set off bells in our heads. We are intimately familiar with this Navajo Yei figure as it also appears as a design element on a 1930s Navajo ashtray we own.

We purchased the ashtray because of those Yei designs which formed the basis of a hunch we had about its origin, but didn’t know if we would find the corroborating evidence to confirm it.

During our research on the United Indian Traders Association for Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry we encountered the document below online at Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester.

Cover of Lectures on Arts and Crafts of the Navajo Indians.

This was our first indication that Berton I. Staples, trader at Coolidge, New Mexico in the 1930s, may have used a hallmark on the silver made by his Navajo employees. It was very common that traders who employed Indian silversmiths would have their business logo made into shop marks for identifying the silver made in their shops. But we had not seen this figure used as an actual hallmark, only as a design element.

Back when we bought our ashtray we ran through our references and found mention in the Elkus Collection catalog, published by the California Academy of Sciences, of this Yei design used on flatware made by two of Staples’ Navajo silversmiths, and commissioned by the Elkus’s.

An image of a place setting of the flatware is included.

Below is a close-up of the design.

Having been used as a design element and business logo does not guarantee that this figure was used as a hallmark. That is, not until Ms. Leblanc posted the images of her silver tray.

We set forth on a mission to prove our hunch. Since the construction techniques and stamped designs of Karen’s tray confirmed a creation date in the 1930s (as did our ashtray with the Yei figure design), we knew we were on the right track. We reviewed our research again and double checked our references, to try to prove, or to disprove, our theory while also considering who else during that time could have used this Yei figure other than Staples. We determined it was unlikely that Charlie and Madge Newcomb, who purchased Staples’ trading post after his death in 1938, would have continued to use someone else’s business logo in their own business. So we finally concluded that the hallmark did, in fact, belong to Berton I. Staples. This was one of our easiest attributions to date!

It could have been even easier if we had just gone to the California Academy of Sciences online database for the Elkus Collection first. Between 1922 and 1965 Ruth and Charles deYoung Elkus of San Francisco assembled an important collection of nearly 1700 examples of historic and contemporary Native American art, and they documented it thoroughly at the time of acquisition. California Academy of Sciences has made the collection available in an online database for decades, we used it to research Hopi & Pueblo Tiles: An Illustrated History. Anyway, there we would have found this entry, Navajo Match Box Holder which includes in its description this phrase “Image of Navajo horned moon (hallmark of Bert I. Staples’ Crafts del Navajo Shop, Coolidge, NM and symbol used on Elkus family silverware.)” The proof of the ownership of this hallmark doesn’t get any better than this (even though the depiction is actually that of a Yei, and not the Horned Moon).

So, attribution in hand we informed Ms. Leblanc that in our opinion her tray was made by silversmiths who worked for Berton Staples at his Crafts del Navajo trading post in the 1930s. It was requested that she send an image of the mark to Bille Hougart, author of Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, for his consideration of including it in his hallmark database, and to be added to the next revision of his identification guide. In the meantime we sent our supporting evidence backing up our attribution to him. And our excitement at having rediscovered this hallmark was doubled by Mr. Hougart’s agreement of the attribution.

It should be noted that Barton Wright attributed the United Indian Traders Association hallmark UITA 3 to Berton Staples in his Second Edition of Hallmarks of the Southwest. Even though Barton’s listing in the Shop Mark section is labeled as No Records: Preliminary Listing it has been taken as gospel and perpetuated across the Internet. But it is impossible that any UITA mark belonged to Staples since he passed away in 1938, and the UITA silver stamping program was initiated in 1946. We think Barton assumed that the number assigned to Staples for the Indian Arts and Craft Board (IACB) silver stamping program in 1938, US NAVAJO 3, would have been carried over to the UITA program. But Barton must have been unaware at the time that Staples had passed before the UITA program was originated.

UITA 3 hallmark. — Not the UITA hallmark for Staples, rather it likely belonged to Toadlena Trading Post or Two Grey Hills Trading Post.

We agree with Bille Hougart’s attribution of UITA 3 to either Toadlena Trading Post or Two Grey Hills Trading Post.

Berton I. Staples

Berton Isaac Staples was born 1873 in Vermont and moved to New Mexico in 1916. After working for various merchants in the area around Thoreau he went into business for himself and in 1925 opened Crafts del Navajo, a trading post at Coolidge, New Mexico on Route 66 east of Gallup. The rambling structure he built there served as a trading post, museum, guest lodge and post office.

Staples was passionate about Navajo art. He, “became devoted to the Navajo and started his own collection of their handicrafts which in time became generally recognized as the finest private collection of Navajo handicrafts in the United States.” He served as president of the United Indian Traders Association from its inception in 1931 until his death. He was appointed to the committee that helped organize the Indian Arts and Crafts Board, and he served on the board for the Gallup Inter-Tribal Ceremonial. Staples died October 9, 1938 in a car crash between Thoreau and Crownpoint, New Mexico. [see Note * at end]

School Arts Magazine March 1931. — *Navajo silver jewelry made at Crafts del Navajo, and a silversmith with his family. Image from March 1931 issue of* School Arts Magazine.

*The biographical information about Staples was taken from the article, “Berton I. Staples Killed in Car Wreck; Rated Authority on Indian Arts and Crafts,” published in Southwest Tourist News, October 13, 1938.

Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog July 16, 2017.

The Definitive Hallmark Reference Guide (and why you should own it)

Dear American Indian Jewelry Enthusiast,

Before you think to yourself, “Should I invest in another hallmark book?” consider that all of us—dealers, collectors and researchers alike—have been waiting a long time (actually, forever) for a reliable, accurate and comprehensive identification guide to the hallmarks used by Native American silversmiths (as well as by those who work in similar styles of jewelry). That day arrived in 2016 with the publication of the Third Edition of Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, by Bille Hougart, and Pat and I can’t recommend this book highly enough. (Note: The revised Fourth Edition was published March 2019 with even more marks, corrections and a reorganized format).

Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks 4th edition

The 3rd edition not only includes over 500 new entries but also corrects previously published errors and long-held misbeliefs as well as properly identifies the hallmarks of many of the most important silversmiths who ever worked. For instance, the correct hallmarks will now be found under the listings for Ambrose Roanhorse and Ambrose Lincoln, Dan Simplicio and John Silver, Homer Vance, and Fred and Frank Peshlakai. There are also significant corrections to the entries for Austin, Ike and Katherine Wilson. Also note there are now separate entries for Garden of the Gods Trading Post and “The Indian” as Mr. Hougart was kind enough to include our most recent research into these two establishments. And while many of the marks used by Navajo silversmiths who worked for C.G. Wallace remain to be adequately identified their treatment in this volume allows for future research.

But the book is more than an identification guide as there is also considerable information about the IACB silver stamping program, guilds, traders and trader’s organizations; plus information on shop stamps and manufacturers of machine made “Indian style” jewelry.

Back in 1972 when Margaret Wright published Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing it was the first book to depict hallmarks used by any group of Indian silversmiths (in this case by Hopi smiths). At that time there was no other way to depict the hallmarks than by using hand drawn illustrations. When Barton Wright’s Hallmarks of the Southwest was published in 1989 it included hallmarks of all southwest silversmiths regardless of tribal affiliation, and also utilized hand drawn depictions of the hallmarks. And even though the second revised edition (published in 2000) is still used as a primary resource, since it is now over fifteen years old, and much new information has come to light in those fifteen years, it has proven to be sorely out of date.

Advances in digital photography and printing technology have facilitated the use of actual photographs of the hallmarks versus the drawings used in older publications. For instance, when Barton Wright drew this mark for Grant Jenkins he successfully rendered the general idea of a coyote head in profile with two ears, an eye and slightly open mouth:

Grant Jenkins entry in Baron Wright's Hallmarks of the Southwest.

However the actual hallmark is significantly different, as these images of two versions of Grant Jenkins’ hallmark illustrate.

Another version of Grant Jenkins' hallmark.

As these examples confirm, images of the actual hallmarks make for accurate attributions, less confusion and fewer debates. Since Mr. Hougart’s first edition, The Little Book of Marks on Southwestern Silver: Silversmiths, Designers, Guilds and Traders, he has incorporated images of hallmarks in his identification guides, making them valuable references. And the 4th edition, with its upgraded paper choice and use of digital printing, affords the clearest images of the hallmarks yet.

Mr. Hougart continues to research and update the hallmark database, employing all available hallmark resources (see our blog post Reassessing Native American Hallmark Books), plus a multitude of other references as evidenced by his extensive bibliography. Consequently the third and fourth editions are by far the most accurate, reliable and comprehensive hallmark identification guides ever published.

So, yes, dear reader, you really do need to own this book, and use it exclusively, putting all previous hallmark guides away for old time’s sake.

Full disclosure: We were pleased to contribute our entire hallmark database to Mr. Hougart’s research and honored to be asked to participate in the editing process for the 3rd and 4th editions as well.

Originally posted on our Goodreads.com blog June 21, 2016 for the Third Edition of the book.

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.

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.