Hopi made silver cuff bracelet

[tamrock]

I picked this up for $20.+ tax today. With a bit of scanning the web for the pictorial makers marks, I found it was made within the Hopi Silvercraft Cooperative Guild.
https://www.arizonahighways.com/article/hopi-jewelry There's still some investigation left to do, which is a stamped mark of a bears face, which may only be the symbol of a particular Hopi clan. The sun stamp is what lead me to identifying this silver smithing cooperative of Hopi students taking up the art of producing silver from one instructor named Fred Kobotie, who seem is a rather acclaimed Hopi artist https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Kabotie It weighs 32 grams and with that I did get it below spot value, but I feel fairly certain it's worth much more than that. How old it is I can't really determine.

 

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[BAW]

The bear's face is the individual mark of the maker, Travis Yaiva, who learned silversmithing in the second G.I. Bill class, held at Hopi High School in Oraibi in 1948. Fred Kabotie was one of the instructors. Travis Yaiva had been one of the "Hopi Code Talkers" , the little-known group who performed the same duties as the famous Navaho code talkers. He was the last survivor of the group when he died at 89 on April 16, 2010.
He adopted the bear's face as his identifying mark and made his own stamp in 1948. It is not known if he continued to make silverwork after the end of his 18 month class. In any case, your piece is a very early example of "overlay" work, which was first used in the late 1940s. By about 1950 it became customary to apply a matte finish to the base where it was visible through the cut-outs in the overlaid piece to preserve the blackened finish which was applied. Yours does not have this matte finish. This seems to indicate a date of 1948 - 1949.
It is probably unnecessary to point out that this is a very rare and valuable piece, worthy of being in a museum.

 

[tamrock]

The bear's face is the individual mark of the maker, Travis Yaiva, who learned silversmithing in the second G.I. Bill class, held at Hopi High School in Oraibi in 1948. Fred Kabotie was one of the instructors. Travis Yaiva had been one of the "Hopi Code Talkers" , the little-known group who performed the same duties as the famous Navaho code talkers. He was the last survivor of the group when he died at 89 on April 16, 2010.
He adopted the bear's face as his identifying mark and made his own stamp in 1948. It is not known if he continued to make silverwork after the end of his 18 month class. In any case, your piece is a very early example of "overlay" work, which was first used in the late 1940s. By about 1950 it became customary to apply a matte finish to the base where it was visible through the cut-outs in the overlaid piece to preserve the blackened finish which was applied. Yours does not have this matte finish. This seems to indicate a date of 1948 - 1949.
It is probably unnecessary to point out that this is a very rare and valuable piece, worthy of being in a museum.

BAW, Where can I find this information you provided. It's so much more than I expected to receive about this item. Also it's interesting you mentioned the blackened matte finish. I had a thought about that. I wondered if it was once blackened and was it removed by time and cleaning or was that really how it was meant to be. Thank you!

 

[newnan man]

You did well finding that. It is very nice.

 

[BAW]

Information regarding Mr. Yaiva's service as a code talker can be found in the May 12, 2010 issue of the Navajo-Hopi Observer, which is available online by doing an internet search for "Travis Yaiva". A picture of his bear's face mark and a brief history of his use of it can be found in" Hopi Silver" by Margaret Wright, published by Northland Press, Flagstaff, AZ in 1972. This book is available very inexpensively from on-line booksellers and is invaluable to anyone interested in Hopi silver. My estimate of the age of your piece is based partly on my own personal research done over 40 years experience as a licensed trader among most of the tribes of the Southwest, and partly on published sources, such as Mrs, Wright's book. I met her years ago through her husband Barton Wright, also a noted author and expert on the Indians of the Southwest, when we both worked at the Museum of Man in San Diego and I was very impressed by her vast knowledge on the subject.
If you can't find a copy of Mrs. Wrights book I could try to send you a picture of the relevant page, but you would have to wait until I find a small child to show me how to do it.