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A very beautiful vintage Navajo silver belt
buckle with spectacular stamp and repoussee work by Jack Adakai, c. 1950’s-60’s
One of the better kept artistic secrets of the 20th century Southwest is the extremely talented Navajo silversmith, Jack Adakai (active 1950’s to 1981), who is well-known among connoisseurs of fine traditional Navajo jewelry, but is not a household name in the sense of Charles Loloma or Kenneth Begay or, particularly, Adakai’s former student and apprentice and now International jewelry Superstar, McKee Platero. Jack Adakai was a quiet and modest man who lived and worked quietly and somewhat anonymously in the era before the internet, years before Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google and the like in the area around the Indian trading and railroad town of Gallup in far western New Mexico near the Arizona border. He was well known and well regarded within his small local region but he was a long way from the era of the “Famous Indian artist.” Even though his work was distinctively brilliant and in some ways shockingly so, Adakai was much more of a dedicated workhorse than a show horse so to speak. He worked at various times for the various prominent trading companies in the area; C.G. Wallace, Tobe Turpen, M.L. Woodard and also worked regularly with the Foutz trading family of Farmington and Shiprock, NM.
Jack Adakai’s work is characterized by its excellent and complete mastery of all traditional Navajo silversmithing techniques, such as tufa-casting, fabrication, stamp, chisel, repoussee and file work. In addition to his own formidable silversmithing abilities, Adakai was also an excellent teacher and mentor in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s to his young clan nephew who is the now world-renowned Navajo silversmith, McKee Platero. Platero apprenticed with Jack Adakai and you can see distinct and not so distant echoes of Adakai’s work and unique artistic ideas in Platero’s subsequent work such as the several examples shown below. The overall large-scale design sensibility, extreme technical virtuosity, use of heavy silver, deep complex stampwork patterns, multiple repousees and the solid scale and feel of many of their pieces are all remarkably similar in attitude, look and overall feel. Jack Adakai is also the father and teacher of the well-known and well-regarded contemporary Navajo silversmith, Ray Adakai.
This wonderful and special buckle is a particularly fine example of Jack Adakai’s exalted capabilities as witnessed
by the elaborate, artistically inspired and technically superb all-over stamp and repoussee work decoration.
The complexity and precision of this work is amazing and awesome to contemplate. It’s like a magical, miniature, multi-leveled painting in precious silver metal. The design is based around a traditional Navajo central four-part, outwardly radiating “four directions” design motif, but then it takes off into a profusion of incredible abstractions and complex additions including no less than twelve separate repouseed panels and a multiplicity of stamp worked designs. The buckle’s overall form also is nicely and slightly curved outwards in profile and this subtle shaping gives it a very fine fit and feel on the body.
The buckle measures a very nicely-sized 3” in width and is 2 3/4” in height, a size which would be easily wearable
by either a man or a woman. Then buckle will accomodate a belt leather of up to 1 3/8" in width. The buckle is in excellent original condition, particularly so for its 60-70 years of age, with a nice degree of age-appropriate wear and a fine patina. There are no damages at all. The buckle is properly signed with Jack Adakai’s capital letters
“J.A.” signature on the back.
If, somehow, this buckle were signed instead with the three-dot insignia of Jack Adakai’s former apprentice, McKee Platero, anyone who knew anything about Navajo silverwork would completely believe it and it would be priced around the five-figure range today and no one would disagree with that either. The art world is not always fair in terms of who gets fame and fortune, and how, when, why and where this occurs, but in this particular case you can get an exceptional amount of very high-level, almost stratospheric artistic value for a fairly down to earth price.
Price $2,475
Please note that the leather belt pictured here is for demonstration purposes only and is not included
in the sale of this buckle. If desired, we can recommend and excellent custom leather shop here in Santa Fe.
Above, three examples of the work of Jack Adakai's Nephew and former apprentice, McKee Platero. Note the distinct similarities in overall composition, repoussee and stampwork decoration to this Jack Adakai buckle.
