Silver Plume Gallery
Purveyors of American Indian & Indigenous Art
IAJ-1276
Navajo
Circa 1930s
Length including hook 1 1/2" (3.6cm)
Diameter of cluster 1 1/8" (2.7cm)
$585.00
"The life of a button"
As early as the 1880s Mexican ingot coins were
melted down and fashioned into buttons by Navajo silversmiths. The Navajo wore these buttons on shirts, pants, moccasins, hatbands and even bags. Silver was gifted or traded amongst family members or pawned for goods for more than a century. From the trading posts these buttons found their way into collectors and dealers hands. They have now begun a new chapter as earrings.
Ingot refers to silver, usually coins that have been cast into an ingot and then hammered into jewelry, so the metal quality of an ingot is coin (American or Peso).
BRACELETS/CUFFS
EARRINGS
RINGS
NECKLACES
Pins/Objet d’Art
BELTS/BUCKLES
POTTERY/FETISHES
ART
FURNITURE
COPYRIGHT SILVER PLUME 2011