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A pair of beautifully made Navajo
Sterling silver napkin rings or kerchief slides
by Thomas Curtis, Sr., c.1980’s-90’s
If you saw these pieces sitting on your dinner table you might lose all interest in the food because these look quite
good enough to eat themselves. These absolutely delicious-looking Sterling silver napkin rings are the product of
the brilliant mind and skilled hands of Thomas Curtis, Sr. (1942-2013), one of the most talented Navajo silversmiths
of the 20th Century.
While these pieces are most likely intended to be used as Napkin rings, we see another likely and very attractive
potential us for them which is to use them as kerchief or bandanna slides. And this possible use seems all the more possible if you know a little bit more about one of Tom Curtis’s other personal passions which was Rodeo. He was an enthusiastic and repeat champion Rodeo rider for many years and he always dressed the part in fancy cowboy attire.
"Riding horses and making jewelry, I don't do these things for fun. They're my tradition; they're survival. They're life to me."
-Thomas Curtis quotation and © Four Winds Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
The rings or slides are beautifully decorated all the way around their front panels with complex matching stamp
work designs. As is always the case with Tom Curtis’s pieces the work is clean, crisp and perfectly executed. The backs
of the rings are flat and undecorated to better sit on the table or rest comfortably against one’s neck or chest.
The rings or slides each measure about 1 1/2" in width and are 1” in height. The "D" shaped openings measure 1 1/4"
by 15/16". They each weigh 32 grams or 1 1/8 ounces. They are both in completely excellent orihginal condition and
each piece is properly signed “T.Curtis” in Thomas Curtis Sr.’s customary cursive signature on the back and each is
also marked “Sterling”.
However you choose to use and characterize these pieces, they are unique, striking and beautifully made pieces
by a uniquely talented and unusually skilled Native artist, the kinds of unique and beautiful pieces you certainly
do not see every day. Bon Appetit! or Ride ‘em Cowboy!
Price $925 pair, sold as a pair only
SOLD
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Thomas Curtis Sr.'s two great passions in life were silversmithing and rodeo riding where he was a repeat Champion. Above, Thomas Curtis Sr. and his daughter Jennifer are pictured at a rodeo event in Arizona, c. 1990's. Jennifer Curtis is now an outstanding Navajo silversmith in her own right following in her Father's footsteps.
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.8 Photo source and © Arizona Highways Magazine