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An exceptional Hopi "triple-overlay" silver ring by Michael Kabotie (Lomawywesa), c. 2000

Michael Kabotie (1942-2009) was one of the most talented and original Hopi artists and silversmiths in history

and this ring shows the stunning virtuosity of an extraordinary artist, an unexcelled master of his craft.

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 variously and selectively 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.

These results are unusually and beautifully achieved in this ring as we will explain further. The ring’s main decorative design is a stylized swirling cloud and lighting motif, stylized depictions of symbols drawn from 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 artistic 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.

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

photo source and © "Totems to Turquoise", American Museum of Natural History, Harry Abrams, New York, 2003, pp. 176-177.

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.

Left photo source and © Sacred Land

The breathtaking beauty of this ancient indigenous Hopi art brought suddenly to light made an indelible impression on the 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.

“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

We were fortunate to have been personal friends and colleagues of Michael Kabotie’s for many years and we have handled a considerable amount of his wonderful jewelry over the past 40 or so years. His rings are particularly rare, we have only had four of them in all, including this one. And, in our opinions, this ring is one of the finest of these four. It is a rare privilege and a wonderful pleasure to be in the presence of such a beautifully realized work of art as the ring’s next fortunate owner will soon happily experience.

The center section of the ring’s design is done in Triple-overlay silver with the design cutout of the top polished layer revealing the darker oxidized layer beneath which has been accentuated by some light hand etching. Kabotie further brought his Triple-overlay innovations to this ring is in the area around the sides and back of the ring’s cast silver shank in which he has hand-etched and stamped a very beautiful, variegated abstract pattern of intersecting lines, so all together there are the main overlay cutouts and the additional decorative etching all the way around the ring making a marvelous and innovative combination of colors and textures.

The ring measures a size 9 1/2 to 9 3/4 on a professional graduated ring sizer. The ring’s face is 5/8" in height

and around 1" in width. The ring weighs a very comfortable and easy to wear 11 grams or 3/8 ounce. The ring is in remarkably excellent, almost like new original condition and it is properly signed "Lomawywesa" in the artist’s characteristic beautiful cursive signature on the interior. Interestingly, and somewhat attractively, the signature appears to have been stamped twice for some reason. The ring is not dated, but stylistically it appears to have been made around 2000, in our opinions.

Michael Kabotie’s Hopi name with which he always signed his jewelry and paintings was “Lomawywesa” which

means “Walking in Harmony”. You will most certainly do that whenever you are wearing this exceptional ring.

SOLD

Michael Kabotie working in his Flagstaff, Arizona studio, 2008.