Michael Kabotie Hopi Triple Overlay Silver Cuff Bracelet 2008

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An extraordinary Hopi “triple-overlay” silver cuff bracelet by Michael Kabotie (Lomawywesa), 2008

Michael Kabotie (1942-2009) was one of the most talented and original Hopi silversmiths in history and this bracelet, completed just one year before his untimely death from H1N1 virus at age 67, is one of his greatest masterpieces. It shows the stunning virtuosity of an extraordinary and mature artist, an unexcelled master of his craft, at the very height of his very considerable abilities. The “triple-overlay” process of making silver overlay jewelry, which Michael Kabotie pioneered, allows his designs to have even greater depth and relief than traditional Hopi silver overlay in which one sheet of silver is sandwiched above another after designs are cut out of the top sheet and the bottom sheet has been oxidized black. Michael took this idea a significant major step further, first by the incredible intricacy and complexity of his overlaid designs and then by adding decorative stampwork, chisel work, etching and shading to areas on the polished top layer of silver and the secondary oxidized layer to provide an even greater sense of depth, dimensionality and relief to the piece.

These results are achieved to near-perfection in this bracelet. The designs themselves are stylized depictions of ancient Hopi ceremonial kiva murals discovered by archaeologists from Harvard University's Peabody Museum in the 1930’s

assisted significantly by Michael Kabotie's Father, Fred Kabotie, in the now-ruined prehistoric Hopi villages of Awatovi

and Kawaiika-a. These fantastic murals are some of the most magnificent ancient artworks ever discovered anywhere in

the world and they were reproduced and interpreted and exhibited in a series of important projects that Michael’s distinguished Father, the brilliant Hopi painter and co-founder of the Hopi Arts and Crafts Guild, Fred Kabotie (1900-1986), participated in or directed in the 1930’s.

The breathtaking beauty of this ancient indigenous Hopi art brought suddenly to light made an indelible impression on young Michael Kabotie who subsequently adopted, refined and continuously stylized these designs as the primary motifs in his paintings and jewelry, which are in and of themselves modern day artistic expressions, if you will, of ancient, ancestral Hopi knowledge and symbolism, as was beautifully stated by Michael Kabotie in the quotation below.

This large-scale bracelet measures a very sizeable 2” in width along the entire length of its silver shank. The inner circumference end-to-end is 5 3/4” and the gap between the terminals is 1 1/4” for a total interior circumference of 7”.

The bracelet weighs a very substantial136 grams or 4 3/4 ounces, slightly over one-quarter pound. The bracelet is in excellent-plus original condition and it is properly signed “Lomawywesa” (Michael Kabotie’s Hopi name which means "Walking in Harmony") in the artist’s characteristic cursive signature and dated “2008” on the interior.

There are a couple of unexplained scratches or etches on the interior near the signature as shown above, but they are completely inconsequential. We were friends of Michael Kabotie’s for many years and we have handled a considerable amount of his wonderful jewelry over the past 35-plus years. In our opinions, this is without a doubt among the very finest of his bracelets that we have ever owned or seen. It is a rare privilege and pleasure to be in the presence of such a beautiful and fully-realized work of art as the next fortunate owner of this piece will very quickly discover.

SOLD

“We the Hopi have a lot to offer from a spiritual standpoint and as a living force. We are hoping that from the presentation of our traditions and from the interpretation of the Hopi way in our art and paintings a new direction can come for American spirituality.”

-Michael Kabotie

At left, "Mrs. Roosevelt and Fred Kabotie, Hopi painter," standing in front of an Awatovi Kiva Mural reproduction by Fred Kabotie at the Museum of Modern Art, New York exhibition, "Indian Art of the United States", 1941. At center, Michael Kabotie wearing one of the silver pendant/panels of his "Silver Room of Awatovi" 2001 sculpture seen at right on the display in The American Museum of Natural History's 2004-2005 "Totems to Turquoise" exhibition.

Left photo source and © The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York. IN123.62. Photograph by Albert Fenn. Center and right

At left, The San Francisco Peaks as seen from the Hopi mesas. At right, a detail of a 2001 Michael Kabotie Hopi mural study drawing depicting The San Francisco Peaks outside Flagstaff, Arizona as being the legendary ancestral home of the Hopi Kachina spirit beings.