We have been buying historic Native American jewellery from collectors and dealers in New Mexico and Arizona for thirty years. The pieces in this collection date from the 1880s through to the pre-1980s, sourced on buying trips to the reservations and from private collectors in the area who are selling. Navajo silverwork dominates the range, characterised by heavy sterling silver shaped around natural turquoise, coral, onyx and other stones, using stamping, sandcasting and concha construction. Zuni pieces are identified by fine lapidary work, with stones cut and set into intricate channel and cluster inlay across the surface of the silver rather than shaped around it. Hopi silverwork, the most recent of the three traditions, uses a distinctive overlay technique developed in the 1930s and 1940s, in which designs drawn from traditional Hopi pottery and textiles are cut into a top layer of silver and soldered over a darkened, oxidised base layer. Each piece in this collection is individual. Nothing is reproduced.
