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.

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.