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A very striking vintage Navajo Coin
ingot-silver cuff bracelet with Modernist stamp
and chisel work designs, c. 1920’s-30’s
Somewhere way out there in the vast remote expanses of Navajoland sometime back in the 1920’s or 1930’s
there was a traditional Navajo silversmith with a decidedly Modernist design streak.
This sort of clean-lined Modernist graphic expression in Navajo silver jewelry would start occurring with much
more frequency and regularity a decade or two later in the early 1940’s when the distinguished Navajo silversmiths and educators, Ambrose Roanhorse and Chester Yellowhair established the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild under the auspices of the Navajo tribal authority. The Navajo Guild emphasized a clean-lined streamlined Modernist design sensibility in their Navajo silverwork using wide expanses of plain unadorned silver with minimal use of set stones and simple, sometimes stark stampwork and chisel work embellishments only, such as in this bracelet.
Another place where a distinctly Modernist sensibility in Navajo silverwork popped up at a fairly early date was at C.G. Wallace’s prominent and influential trading post at Zuni Pueblo where a couple of Wallace’s talented in-house Navajo silversmiths, Austin Wilson and Roger Skeet Sr., made a number of very Modernist looking pieces beginning in the 1920’s. Although this bracelet is unsigned for the maker, the possibility does exist that it could be an early piece made by Austin Wilson before he began regularly signing his pieces around the 1930’s. The craftsmanship here is certainly compatible with Wilson’s excellent work as is the unique artistic expression, but absent a signature or other documentations, an attribution can only remain speculative, but it is a somewhat informed speculation nonetheless. The modernist stylerepeating diamond design on this bracelet is also quite reminiscent of another
early Navajo bracelet from around the same time period which we had previously sold also with repeating diamond stampwork design pictured below. These two bracelets have disctint similarities and were very possibly made by the same unknown maker.
Repeating Diamond Design Motifs in Navajo Weavings
Repeating diamond designs are an iconic Navajo weaving design and various iterations of this basic motif, a row or group of
repeating diamond designs going across the entire width or length of a Navajo weaving are commonly seen throughout the history
of Navajo weaving from Classic-Period serapes and wearing blankets such as the two examples shown above at left and center through later Transitional-Period turn of the 20th Century blankets and rugs, such as the "Eye Dazzler" rug seen above right, right down to the Contemporary Navajo rugs and tapestry weavings of the present day.
Left and center photo source and © "Navajo Weaving, Three Centuries of Change" by Kate Peck Kent, School of the American Research Press, Santa Fe, 1985, pp. 39 and 55. Right photo source and © Arizona State Museum
Regardless of the name of the person who actually made it, the bracelet is beautifully, traditionally and painstakingly hand made of cast-ingot coin silver. A quantity of precious historic American silver coins, hard currency that was difficult and expensive to come by in the mostly trade economy of Navajoland in those early days. In this case, it is the silver equivalent of six silver half dollar or three silver dollar coins, which were melted down and cast into an ingot-silver “slug” which was then re-heated to red hot and hammered over and over into shape to form the bracelet’s silver shank which was then decorated with these unique stamp and chisel work designs.
It was a costly, arduous and difficult process overall, yet it yielded a lovely and harmonious artistic expression, very pleasing to the eye.
The beautifully-applied stamp worked and chisel worked design of two horizontally-oriented, diamond-shaped motifs linked together with a continuous line all the way around the bracelet’s shank and bordered on both sides with a single line of stampwork is definitely a Modernist-style design presentation, but it very interestingly does have certain distinct roots in Navajo art, history and tradition. It is visually quite reminiscent of the horizontal bands
of continuous repeating diamond designs from edge to edge which one often finds on many Navajo historic and contemporary weavings as shown below and the design here on this bracelet certainly and quite closely resembles a stylized sparse Modernist interpretation of this very commonly seen traditional Navajo weaving design expression.
The bracelet measures 11/4" in continuous width all the way around. The inner circumference end-to-end is 5 7/8" and the gap between the terminals is 1 1/8" for a total interior circumference of 7". The bracelet weighs a substantial
73 grams or 2 5/8 ounces, the equivalent of six American silver half dollar or three silver dollar coins and it has
a marvelous, smooth, soft “feel” on the wrist. The bracelet is in excellent original vintage condition, particularly in light of its century or so of age, with a very nice amount of gentle age-appropriate wear, but no real damages.
Just a fine, soft original patina from substantial age and use.
Not much more to say here, this bracelet’s beauty, quality and craftsmanship speaks quite
eloquently for itself. The remaining question is whether or not you are listening?
Price $2,250
