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A rare, historic and beautiful Navajo Coin-Silver and turquoise cuff bracelet, c. 1915-1925
This is a rare example of a Navajo coin-silver bracelet which has been made in the very old style technique of heating and hammering out the actual silver coins themselves to form the silver shank of the bracelet. This is a more direct,
but much more difficult variation of the usual method which was to melt a quantity of silver coins down and cast them into an ingot silver “slug” which would then be heated and hammered out to form the shank of the bracelet. In this
more difficult other method the individual coins are heated to red hot, hammered and folded over or annealed and
fused into each other to form the bracelet’s silver shank.
This is an infinitely ancient technique of metalsmithing known as “Mokume-gane” in Japanese which means bringing different pieces of metal together into one, and this is precisely the method by which their ancient Samurai swords
were made. The telltale characteristic here of the use of this technique is the very visible presence of remnants of
the old coin’s serrated edges, parallel ridges which are clearly visible under magnification in various areas of the bracelet’s silver shank as can be seen in the photo below.
The bracelet is beautifully designed with a row of repeating chiseled and stampworked diamond-shaped designs all
the way around the bracelet. This work is perfectly done with incredible control and quality, executed so skillfully
that it gives the illusion that the diamonds are actually woven into one another as seen in certain Navajo textile designs like the example shown below. In the bracelet’s center is set a lovely, small, blue oval-shaped turquoise stone in an old-style “foldover” type silver bezel. It’s a restrained, classic and supremely elegant presentation overall!
At left and right, a Navajo Classic Child's Blanket c. 1865-75, showing a continous row of interlocking diamond designs.
Photo source and © "Navajo Weaving, Three Centuries of Change" by Kate Peck Kent, School of the American Research Press, Santa Fe, 1985, pp. 55.
The bracelet measures 1" 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 3/8" for a total interior circumference of 7 1/4". The bracelet’s silver shank is slightly less than 1/8" in thickness and varies slightly along the length of the bracelet. The bracelet weighs a very
nice feeling 63 grams, or 2 1/4 ounces, about the weight of two and a half American silver dollars and it is in thoroughly excellent original vintage condition. We are not certain of the origin of the beautiful small blue turquoise stone, possibly it is from southern Arizona’s famed Sleeping Beauty Mine one the country’s oldest operating turquoise mines. as befits it considerable age and the early time period in which it was made, the bracelet is unsigned for its maker.
Every old Indian trader and every old Indian traders’s old customers have their dedicated “go-to” everyday bracelet which they will never ever take off for an entire variety of reasons; age, rarity, beauty, history, condition, comfort,
etc. This treasure is one of those unique and wonderful pieces!
Price $3,950
Photo taken under magnification to show the remnants of the serrated edges of the old silver coins from which the bracelet was made.