Monday, October 19, 2009

Books about Native American Jewelry

I love sitting down with a good book about Native American jewelry, especially one with lots of color pictures! There are many wonderful books out there about Native American Jewelry. I have selected a few of our favorites below. You are welcome to add your favorite in the comments section below the post.

There are several very helpful books about Native American Jewelry Hallmarks. The one I use most often is "Hallmarks of the Southwest" by Barton Wright, which is available from Amazon. It's a little expensive so it is only worth the price if you are a collector or buyer of Native American Jewelry and think you may be using it frequently. Another helpful book for researching hallmarks on Hopi jewelry is called "Hopi Silver - The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing" by Margaret Nickelson Wright. And for Zuni jewelry, I find the book "Zuni Jewelry" by Theda and Michael Bassman very useful. Some of these books are in their second printing, so look for the newest & most recent editions. They are all available on Amazon. Using these three books, you have a good chance of finding the hallmark, especially if the jewelry is older. But of course, these books don't reference the hallmarks of every Native American artist out there..only the more prolific ones.

If you have a specific question about the hallmark on a single or particular piece of jewelry, I might be able to help you. Email me pictures of the piece (front and back) with any other information you may have and I'll quickly research the hallmark for you. I'm not guaranteeing anything but I'm willing to give it a shot!



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