Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild Modernist Silver Bead and Turquoise Pendant Necklace

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A stunning and superbly made Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild Modernist-style silver bead and pendant necklace, possibly by Ambrose Roanhorse c.1940’s-50’s

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The Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild (NACG), founded in 1941 under the auspices of the Navajo Tribal Authority, was a Major-league all-star team with an extraordinary lineup of many of the finest Navajo silversmiths in existence. Led by their founding Director, the brilliant Navajo silversmith and tribal educator, Ambrose Roanhorse (1900-1986), The Navajo Guild pioneered a beautiful and creative artistic marriage of a distinctly Modernist and streamlined design aesthetic with old-style, completely traditional Navajo methods of hand craftsmanship which emphasized the use of mainly silver with minimal use of set stones and then as accents only and an emphasis on form instead of applied decorations so there was minimal but highly effective use of decorative stamp work, chisel and file work.

“It sure feel good when you wear hand-made jewelry. If they use machine jewelry, by golly, one these days 20 years from now goin’ to have big sandstorms-10 years,

8 years, maybe 5 years. That’s the way I feel.”

-Ambrose Roanhorse, 1936

Quotation from Billie Hougart, “The Little Book of Marks on Southwestern Silver”, TBR International, 2011

At left, Kenneth Begay, Scottsdale, Arizona, c. 1950's. At top center, Ambrose Roanhorse's capital letter "A" inside a keystone jewelry signature. At bottom center, the mysterious capital letter "A" inscribed on the back of one of the pendants on this necklace. At right, Ambrose Roanhorse working at his bench, c. 1950.

Left photo source and © Arizona Republic.

At left, the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild's present-day sales outlet in Cameron, AZ. At right, Navajo Guild Founding Director, Ambrose Roanhorse teaching a silversmithing class at The Fort Wingate Indian School in far western New Mexico, c. 1950.

A traditional Navajo hogan. This necklace could have been made in a similar Navajo hogan as opposed to a fancy European jewelry atelier.

Photo source and © Fine Arts of the Southwest Inc.

The striking, swooping-looking severe angularity of the silver beads and the unique negative form of the stylized Arrowhead or “A” shaped silver pendants are reminiscent of the clean Modern design sensibility numerous of both Roanhorse’s and also Begay’s pieces some of which are shown here below and the successful and wonderful intermixing of fabricated and cast silver elements is also something they both used regularly. Of course, there is no way to ever know this for certain if Ambrose Roanhorse or Kenneth Begay was really the maker of this necklace, but its a fascinating and plausible possibility to ponder especially in Ronahorse’s case given the subtle, almost hidden delicate but indelible “A” mark.

The necklace measures approximately 10" in length measured while lying flat from the top of the silver clasp to the bottom of the center silver pendant. It measures 17 3/4" in length from end-to-end when completely opened up as seen below. The necklace is composed of 40 very angularly-shaped silver beads, nicely graduated in three sizes with 16 larger beads, 8 medium-sized beads and 16 smaller ones. There are also seven large, triangularly-shaped silver and turquoise pendants resembling stylized arrowheads. The largest-sized silver beads each measure 3/4" in diameter, the medium-sized silver beads each measure 5/8" in diameter and the smallest-sized silver beads each measure 3/8" in diameter. The seven silver and turquoise "Arrowhead" pendants each measure 2" in length and are 1" in width at their widest point. The necklace weighs a substantial, yet extremely comfortable to wear 125 grams or 4 3/8 ounces.

The necklace is securely strung on a foxtail chain and it closes with a fine silver hook and eye clasp.

The necklace is in remarkably excellent original condition overall and particularly so for its 70-80 years of age, with only some very slight amount of wear and it is very properly signed on the back of one of the seven pendants with the distinctive famous “Horned Moon” hallmark of the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild. This is the only hallmark which was ever allowed to appear on The Navajo Guild’s historic jewelry pieces; the individual hallmarks of their individual makers were not allowed under Guild regulations. However, and this is where it gets a bit more interesting, certain individual makers personal stylistic manner of making things (a “signature” of a different sort, if you will) is more distinctly recognizable than others and our vote for the anonymous maker here goes to the Guild’s brilliant founder, the great Navajo silversmith, Ambrose Roanhorse with Kenneth Begay being a close second but not first for a particular reason which we will now discuss:

A SECRET SIGNATURE?

There is, most fascinatingly, a very deliberately and very delicately inscribed capital letter “A” on the back of one of the necklace’s seven pendants which to us is a fairly clear indication of an artist’s proprietary mark but a bit stealthy and secretly applied here because it was obviously against the Guild regulations which Roanhorse himself helped establish and enforce, but let’s call it a tiny bit of artistic ego or proprietary nature but it’s here for those who notice it but officially and obviously its not really here. In our view, he liked this piece so much and was so proud of it that he couldn’t help but put his mark on it in some quiet but recognizable way, a truly and lovely stealth touch. When Roanhorse signed his own jewelry pieces which were not made for The Navajo Guild his signature was a bold capital letter “A” inside a keystone as shown here below. There is also the somewhat stylized “A” shape of the seven arrowhead like pendants to consider in this regard as well.

Within a larger contextual framework, it is somewhat difficult to believe that this stunning and precious piece of elegant and sophisticated silver Modernist jewelry was actually made in a dusty, bare-bones Navajo Guild workshop as shown here above or on the dirt floor of a mud and wood Navajo hogan as shown here below somewhere in the remote windswept reaches of far western New Mexico and not in the spotless International workshop of some fancy famous Parisian, Roman or Danish Jewelry atelier such as Boucheron, Bulgari or George Jensen, but there the reality lies. Precisely how it came to be that way is a testament to The Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild’s artistic inspiration and technical sophistication of the highest order made all the more remarkable because of where, when, how and by whom the necklace was conceived and crafted.

We’ll leave it at that except to say that this exceptional unique necklace would be a prize acquisition by any

private individual or public institution; it is at once a gorgeous, rare piece of Native American art, a precious piece of world-class fine jewelry and an object lesson in history, tradition and futuristic thinking all rolled into one delightful, elegant and unforgettable presentation.

Price $5,400

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For comparison purposes, here are various Modernist-Style Navajo jewelry pieces made by Kenneth Begay and Ambrose Roanhorse. The bracelet and concho belt set at left are by Kenneth Begay. The Squash-Blossom style necklace at center and the bracelet and buckle at right are by Ambrose Roanhorse.

This gorgeous and fascinating necklace is a perfect example of the Guild’s unique synthesis of Modernist sensibility and old-style traditional handmade quality. It is an updated and thoroughly Modernistic version of a traditional

late 19th/early 20th Century Navajo “Squash Blossom” style silver bead and pendant necklace as seen above in

the example made by the great Slender-Maker-of-Silver. The Guild necklace has the familiar feel and the zoning of a Squash Blossom necklace with a central pendant at the necklace’s bottom center surrounded on both sides by an array of additional pendants strung at regular intervals between the beads but then there’s the wildly modern “Star Trek” like angularity of the sharp-edged, diamond-like shape of the silver beads and the exaggerated elongated triangle shape of the Modernist Squash blossom pendants which are done in outlining or negative space primarily.

These exotically-shaped beads are ultra-modern looking but they are meticulously hand made in the classic, time-tested old-style Navajo manner, in two matched hammered-out silver discs soldered together and the pendants are traditionally tufa-cast silver set with beautifully matched sky-blue pieces of what appears to be Morenci Mine, Arizona turquoise stone with its characteristic iron pyrite matrix. All in all, the necklace is a fascinating and striking synthesis of new style design and old style technique. It's as if Slender Maker of Silver had somehow

met and collaborated with Darth Vader of Star Wars, if you will.

At left, a traditional Classic-Period Navajo silver "Squash-Blossom" style necklace by Slender Maker-of-Silver, c. 1885 in the collection of The Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe.