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Two rare, historic “UITA21” Navajo
copper cuff bracelets made at Southwest Arts and Crafts, Santa Fe, NM, c. 1930’s-40’s
These two bracelets are unique and genuine classics, early 20th Century “revivals” of the oldest form of
Navajo jewelry, the 19th Century plain copper bracelet. The bracelets were made at Julius Gans’ famous Indian trading post on San Francisco street in downtown Santa Fe, Southwest Arts and Crafts, which was one of Santa
Fe’s most prominent and finest old early 20th Century Indian trading posts. And they were made by an obviously
very highly-skilled Navajo silversmith there, who could even have been the great Mark Chee who was working at
Southwest Arts and Crafts as a young bench silversmith at this time. but more on that later.
Very significantly, both of these bracelets are hallmarked with the coveted and prestigious United Indian Trader’s Association “UITA21” quality guarantee. Established in 1931 by a group of the Southwest’s most prominent Indian Traders, the united Indian Trader’s Association or “UITA” headquartered in Gallup, New Mexico, was a trade group dedicated to promoting and ensuring the highest degree of quality and authenticity in the production of Native American artwork, primarily jewelry. UITA established and promoted a very strict set of quality standards regarding specific materials used and means of manufacture, all hand made nothing machine made or prefabricated among others.
"The best of the genuine."
-Julius Gans
At left, San Francisco Street in downtown Santa Fe. The Southwest Arts and Crafts building sign can be seen at top center.
At right, some of Southwest Arts and Crafts Native silversmiths in front of the store, 1935. Mark Chee is pictured at second from left.
Left photo source and © T. Harmon Parkhurst, The Santa Fe New Mexican, c. 1925-45. Right photo source and © Frashers Fotos. Above center, Southwest Arts and Crafts sales catalog, c. 1934.
Center photo source and © "The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico", by Jonathan Batkin, Wheelwright Museum, 2008, pp. 155.
BRACELET NUMBER ONE
This bracelet features a beautiful, round deeply-repouseed central medallion surrounded by beautiful stamp work
in a radiating multi-pointed “star” design. The stamp work continues in a beautiful spare and sinuous pattern down the bracelet’s shank on both sides to the terminal ends. This bracelet measures 2 1/4" in width at its widest central point and it tapers down to around 3/4" in width at the terminal ends. The bracelet’s inner circumference end-to-end is 5 1/2" and the gap between the terminals is 7/8" for a total interior circumference of 6 3/8". The bracelet weighs a very nice feeling and completely comfortable to wear 73 grams or 2 5/8 ounces and it is in excellent original condition with some age-appropriate wear (not much) and it has developed a fine deep patination to the copper surface over time.
The bracelet is properly and proudly signed “UITA21” on the interior.
Price $1,750
BRACELET NUMBER TWO
This bracelet also features a beautiful, round repouseed central medallion with additional smaller repousees
on either side all surrounded by beautiful stamp work also in a radiating “star” design. All three repousees are surrounded with stamp work designs, perhaps a little more and complex overall than the somewhat spare designs on bracelet number one. The stamp work continues down the bracelet’s shank on both sides. This bracelet measures a slightly wider 2 5/8" in width at its widest central point and tapers down to around 7/8" in width at the terminal ends. The bracelet’s inner circumference end-to-end is 5 1/2" and the gap between the terminals is just slightly under 1" for a total interior circumference of just slightly less than 6 1/2". The bracelet weighs a bit less than bracelet number one weighing in at an also very nice feeling and easy to wear 61 grams or 2 1/8 ounces and it is also in excellent original condition with some age-appropriate wear (also not much) and has developed a fine deep patination to the copper surface over time. The bracelet is also properly and proudly signed “UITA21” on the interior.
Price $1,750
These two bracelets are not just beautiful, rare and wearable pieces of fine historic Navajo jewelry, they are also unique and special documents of a particular time and place in the long history of Native American artwork, beautiful, precious pieces made to the highest quality standards possible and guaranteed by an organization dedicated to doing precisely that. It’s the historic Native American jewelry equivalent of “The good housekeeping seal of approval”.
The UITA was similar to in methods and goals and existed parallel along with The United States Government’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board’s “U.S. Navajo” and “U.S. Zuni” programs which were administered and quality-controlled by the great Navajo silversmith and teacher, Ambrose Roanhorse and the distinguished arts authority Rene d’Harnancourt. Also, at around the same time the Navajo tribal authority empowered the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild under Ambrose Roanhorse to do essentially the same type of establishing and policing of quality standards for Navajo silverwork made under the Navajo Guild’s auspices and marked with their exclusive hallmark.
The UITA assigned each of its member trading posts a specific and exclusive numeric code. In the case of Southwest Arts and Crafts, their proprietary number was “21” and every piece of Native American jewelry made there had to pass a rigorous quality inspection and if it passed it was then stamped with UITA’s hallmark and guarantee for that particular trading post, in this case “UITA21” as seen here. Of course, other UITA member trading posts had their own different numbers. The UITA quality guarantee stamp tells you a large part of the story of course, but one look at these bracelets tells you even that much more, the craftsmanship here is simply superb, the overall design, shaping, stamping, chisel, file and repoussee work are all absolutely first rate.
This silversmith clearly had a great deal of experience and skill and his pieces had a highly distinctive look and feel, which brings us back to the possibility of Mark Chee having been the artist who made them since they correspond to some degree to his lean and powerful graphic and metalworking style. This is just a possibility of course and could never be proved but it is a tantalizing possibility to ponder nonetheless. And also, it is important to keep in mind that copper metal is considerably more difficult to work with technically than silver. Copper’s melting point is some 200 degrees higher and its metal hardness on the standard Mohs metal hardness scale is a 3 while silver is a 2.5 meaning that copper is about 20% harder than silver and thus that much more difficult to work with in terms of stamping, chiseling, filing, sanding and buffing so working with it successfully requires a silversmith with a higher degree of artistic and technical ability. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart.
The particulars of these two bracelets are as follows:
At left, Bracelet Number One. At right, Bracelet Number Two. Above, UITA business card, c. 1931.
UITA card photo source and © Bille Hougart Books