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A spectacular full-sized Navajo silver and
turquoise Second-Phase Revival-style Concho belt
by the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild, c. 1940’s
This piece is a Masterpiece with a capital “M”. Notably, this is the only full-sized Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild
Concho belt that we have ever seen in nearly 40 years of enthusiastically buying, selling and collecting Navajo silver work which leads us to some interesting speculation we will address later.
According to the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild’s regulations, individual artists were not allowed to sign Guild pieces with their own personal hallmarks, only the Guild’s official “Horned Sun” hallmark could be used but the Guild was an all-star team of the finest Navajo and Pueblo all-star silversmiths of the time so this belt could have easily been made by Kenneth Begay, by Guild co-founder Ambrose Roanhorse, one of the three Kee brothers, George, Allan, or Ivan, Jack Adakai or several other luminaries. Our vote here goes with either Kenneth Begay or Ambrose Roanhorse as being the belt’s maker for a number of reasons. The quality, “feel” and elegant appearance of the work overall, the excellence and precision of the stamp-work designs the distinctive Modernist edge and feel, the large open silver lightly-repoussed ovals on the interior of the conchos and the cut and presentation of the twelve high-domed turquoise stones all give us a sense of these masters' work.
At left, Kenneth Begay, c. 1950's. At right, Navajo Guild Co-Founder and Director, Ambrose Roanhorse, c. 1940's. At top center, The Navajo Guild's hallmark at one of its present-day outlets in Cameron, Arizona. At bottom center, the Navajo Guild's hallmark on this belt.
Left photo source and © Arizona Republic.
Design-wise, the belt is a more Modern-day revival of the historic Navajo Second-Phase style of Concho belt
(c.1885-1910) as seen above right with a full-sized buckle and eight matching oval-shaped silver conchos with scalloped edges. This is completely in line with the Guild’s jewelry-making philosophy, to revive or continue the use of classic Navajo silversmithing forms, materials, methods and technique incorporating a somewhat more modern design sensibility and always emphasizing the silver and the silver work with minimal use of set stones and restrained, but elegant use of stamp and chisel work decoration.
The full-sized belt measures 38 1/4" end-to-end from the outside edge of the buckle to the tip of the black leather strap. There are 7 holes in the strap at 32 1/2", 32 3/4", 33 1/4", 33 1/2" 34", 34 1/2" and 35" measured from the center of the buckle. The buckle itself measures 3 7/8” in width and is 3 1/8" in height and each of the eight silver conchos measures
3 1/2" in width and is 2 7/8" in height. In a faithful revival of the old Navajo Second-Phase Concho belt style and method, each silver concho has copper fastening loops soldered onto the back to attach them to the belt. The entire Concho belt weighs a very substantial 666 grams or 23 1/2 ounces, slightly less than 1 1/2 pounds, yet it sits extremely comfortably on the body. The belt is properly signed with the Navajo Guild’s famous “Horned Sun” hallmark and the word “NAVAJO” on the back of the buckle. For more information about The Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild, click here.
There are twelve beautiful high-domed oval-shape, hand-cut cabochon turquoise stones in the belt, four larger stones in the buckle and eight smaller ones, one in the center of each concho. The stones are a mixture of turquoise varieties; the four stones in the buckle and on several conchos are a gorgeous deep saturated blue with dark grey/black spiderweb matrix, possibly Burnham-Godber, Number 8 or Blue Diamond, Nevada while several others on the conchos are a more blueish-green color with brownish matrixing, likely Blue Gem, Nevada. All of the stones are very cleanly set in old-style “Foldover” type silver bezels.
All in all, this marvelous belt is as fine a piece of work as one could ever ask for in our opinions, most beautifully designed and most impeccably crafted, and to reiterate in our nearly 40 years of doing this, this is the ONLY piece of its type from the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild that we have ever seen or heard about. It’s uniqueness in this regard makes it very interesting to speculate about the possibility of this piece having been made as a special commission for an important customer, possibly a Navajo Tribal official?
Could Kenneth Begay or Ambrose Roanhorse have conceivably made this belt for someone like the great Navajo headman and Chief, Henry Chee Dodge? Of course, there is no way to know something like this for certain without much more research. What we do know for certain now is that this is a remarkably beautiful, remarkably well-crafted and remarkably rare and unique historic Navajo silver piece made by a distinguished Navajo artist under the auspices of a most distinguished Navajo artistic organization. It would be a distinct privilege and great pleasure for anyone, anywhere
to own this piece.
SOLD
Above center, a Navajo man wearing a historic Navajo Second-Phase Style Concho belt, c. 1900. At below right, a historic Navajo Second-Phase Style Concho belt, c. 1900.
Above center photo source and © John Adair, "The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths", University of Oklahoma Press, 1944
