Recently the work of Navajo silversmith Hosteen Goodluck was the topic of discussion in one of the online jewelry forums. So, we proudly posted a concho (which has been converted to a belt buckle) that, when it was purchased decades ago, had been attributed to Hosteen Goodluck by trusted associates and knowledgeable dealers of Indian jewelry, including the late Jay Evetts. We were so confident of the attribution that we published the buckle in Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry as that of Hosteen Goodluck.
But even before that it was published on page 164 of American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies under the listing for Hosteen Goodluck:
You can imagine our astonishment then when we were bluntly, and embarrassingly, made aware by those who consider themselves experts on Goodluck’s work that the buckle was definitely not made by Hosteen Goodluck. Notably, one dealer who attributed the buckle to Goodluck over 20 years ago now says they find no evidence to support that designation. Which was extremely discouraging.
To understand how our concho suddenly became the work of any other Navajo silversmith except Goodluck, we politely asked what defines Goodluck’s work; what was their source to judge his techniques, his skill, or use of design elements? None of those who proclaimed themselves extremely knowledgeable in Goodluck’s work were forthcoming with evidence why their pieces were by Goodluck, but ours wasn’t. They only pointed to work they attributed to Goodluck asking, “can’t you see the difference?” Truthfully, yes we could see the difference, but struggled with discerning how they were so certain of their conclusions.
So how would the work of Hosteen Goodluck, who died in 1937, be identified when that artist never signed his work or used a hallmark? Who can credibly attest to what Hosteen Goodluck’s silverwork looks like? Attributing silverwork made in the early part of the twentieth century, at a time when silversmith’s names were rarely attached to their work in any meaningful way, is a slippery slope without a hallmark, or some proof to back it up.
Due to the absence of clarification, we decided to do our own homework and went looking for the primary source, provenance, proof, or “smoking gun” that provided the facts for discerning the work of Hosteen Goodluck. We searched for something like a concho belt in a museum collection with solid provenance, or a photo of Goodluck hammering conchos to back up the attributions. There’s not much available online, nor in the books in our library, but we did finally find a primary resource from 1975, and it was right under our noses all along.
Yes, the C.G. Wallace Collection of American Indian Art catalog from the Sotheby Parke Bernet auction conducted in November 1975 has not one, not two, but six illustrated concho belts attributed to Hosteen Goodluck.
Now, it’s hard to argue with Wallace’s attributions, afterall, he was there working with the silversmiths from 1919 until 1964 or so. But it’s also difficult not to fault his memory, or record keeping, when some of his attributions in the catalog are now known to be so inaccurate. For example, two of the items attributed to Navajo silversmith Etsitty Tsosie (or Eskiesosie, Wallace’s corruption of the name), bracelet #691 and a “Zuni comb” #1141, were said to have been made in 1943 and 1955 respectively. However, Etsitty Tsosie died in 1937 and his passing made national headlines. This raises the question, are these merely typos in the catalog, or lapses in Wallace’s memory?
To complicate matters, we recently stumbled upon a tidbit of gossip from years ago. We had always heard from old-time collectors of inconsistencies in the catalog’s attributions, but never saw any written confirmation of the rumors. The quote below is from someone who was actively collecting Zuni jewelry in 1975 and acquainted with those involved in the catalog.
Bob Ashton said when he and his wife Sharon did the catalog it took nine painful months because C.G. kept changing his mind on who made what pieces. Ashton said there are a lot of inconsistencies in that catalog.
But we digress.
So what do these six concho belts tell us about the work made by Hosteen Goodluck? If Wallace’s attributions can be trusted, then Goodluck was a silversmith with very diverse skills and techniques, because the design elements are different in each of the six belts. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to find commonality in these six examples.
Was Hosteen Goodluck a master silversmith? Undoubtedly, as Ruth Falkenburg Kirk reported that by 1920 Goodluck was recognized as one of “the most expert and best known Indian smiths.”
We remain skeptical how these experts are so confident that they are the only ones who know every style of work, technique, and design element that Goodluck used, especially since they refuse to reveal their research to back-up their claims.
And, by the way, as we see it, concho belt #389 in the Wallace catalog is close enough in construction (at least from what we can see in the photograph) to actually support the earlier attribution that our concho was made by Hosteen Goodluck.
This incident exemplifies why we largely collect only hallmarked metalwork by Native American silversmiths; because a hallmark assures us of the maker of the piece and we am not dependent on some ephemeral attribution from a dealer who may, or may not, have done as much research as we have on the subject.
Hosteen Goodluck
Hosteen Goodluck was born, in what was to become the southern part of the Navajo Reservation, about 1865 and died March 26, 1937 according to the U.S. Indian Census Rolls. He was photographed June 6, 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri where he demonstrated Navajo silversmithing, Navajo Man Good Luck.
Goodluck worked for C. G. Wallace from 1919 to 1932 according to the auction catalog, and Wallace told Dale Stuart King in 1976 (Indian Silverwork, Volume Two), “Hosteen Goodluck was making heavy stamped leaves on bracelets and belt buckles in 1919. I moved Goodluck from Houck, Arizona, to Zuni to do cast work and as die maker.”
In 1929 Goodluck traveled to Colorado Springs to work for Charles Strausenback at Garden of the Gods Trading Post, he joined his son William Goodluck, who had worked for Strausenback in the preceding summers at another nearby trading post. According to a Colorado Springs Gazette article, “Indians Transplanted to Garden of the Gods in Strausenback’s New Trading Post,” dated June, 9, 1929,
Four adult Navajos, a Navajo baby in its carriage and a family of Santa Claras are living at the Trading Post in Indian fashion. There are two hogans where the Indians live. In the Trading Post they weave blankets, work in silver and with the Indian’s choice gem, the turquoise. Heading the redskin delegation is old Hosteen and his son, Bill Goodluck. Hosteen is one of the old types of Indian silver workers, distaining modern bench conveniences for the methods of his forefathers. Hosteen and his son were in a party of Navajos at the Buffalo Exposition [September 1901] when President McKinley, a few hours before he was the victim of an assassin, stopped to talk to the Indians. Asking them their name he caught the Navajos phrase as “good luck” and the family adopted the name thereafter.
Originally published on our Goodreads.com blog December 15, 2018.