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.
Along with an image of the hallmark on the back.
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.
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.
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]
*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.