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An outstanding Navajo silver and
Sonoran Desert Ironwood Collar style
necklace by Kenneth Begay, c.1960’s
This necklace in a nutshell says basically all you ever need to know about Kenneth Begay’s (1913-1977) exceptional Navajo silverwork; it is at once classic, modern, elegant, graceful, perfectly conceived and just as perfectly crafted. Kenneth Begay’s work is revered everywhere fine Navajo silversmithing is understood and appreciated. Its beauty even provided the original artistic inspiration for renowned Hopi jeweler, Charles Loloma (1921-1991), to begin making jewelry by his own account.
This collar’s design is a fascinating swooping streamlined silver arc. To use a popular cultural reference, it somewhat resembles the futuristic Starship Enterprise from the famous Star Trek TV and movie series. The continuous hollow form silver piece which forms the body of the choker has a curving “V” shape with its widest point being at the very center. At either side of the choker’s center Begay inlaid finely curved and contoured hand carved strips of deep brown Sonoran Desert ironwood. The color and textural contrasts of the dark brown ironwood and the highly-polished lustrous white silver make for a powerful and very pleasing visual interplay. Overall, the sensuously curving design and gleaming silver surface of the choker are a particularly sleek and sensuous presentation. It almost looks even slightly like a stylized sly cat's or panther's face with curving deep brown eyes and a stylized silver nose and whiskers.
Kenneth Begay, Scottsdale, Arizona c. 1950's.
Photo source and © Arizona Republic.
The Sonoran Desert Ironwood Tree (Olneya tesota). Desert Ironwood is a deep brown, dense and extremely hard fine-grained wood often used in Southwestern jewelry by artists such as Kenneth Begay and Charles Loloma.
Photo source and © Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
"I like to create something new and still use the old Navajo design style.”
-Kenneth Begay
“Kenneth Begay created clean, elegant designs based on streamlined shapes that were repeated to form balanced and harmonious patterns, a style that has been compared to Navajo weaving.”
-Quotation source and © “Totems to Turquoise”, Harry Abrams, Inc. New York, in association with the American Museum of Natural History
The collar measures 6" in length from the silver balls on the tops of the two silver ends to the bottom edge of the collar. It measures 4 3/4" in width measured straight across at its widest point and the silver body of the choker is
1 1/8" in width at its widest center point and tapers gracefully down to 1/8" in width at the top, the round silver ball tips are 1/4" in diameter. The inside circumference of the choker from silver ball to silver ball is 12". The collar weighs
a very comfortable 65 grams or 2 1/4 ounces. The collar is in generally excellent original condition especially for its 55-60 years of age. Please note that there are a couple of slight dents in the necklace and some minor surface imperfections around one Ironwood inlay and some raised surface irregularity on one small area of the back as shown
in the photos below. The piece is properly signed on the back with Kenneth Begay’s well-known hallmark of his capital letter initials “KB” inside a serrated square box.
This collar is extremely wearable for any number of occasions and would look equally attractive worn with a t-shirt
and jeans or with a black cocktail dress at a fancy get-together or red carpet soiree. Afterwards, in a more private setting, it would perhaps be even more elegant worn completely on its own. If you have a piece like this, what other ornamentation could you possibly need? You don’t even need to wear this piece to appreciate its beauty. It looks wonderful just displayed on a stand as seen above or alone on a table for the precious sculptural object it is.
This collar is an excellent example of the very finest and most creative work of one of the most outstanding
artists in Native American history. It is precisely why Kenneth Begay is universally considered to be one of the
greatest Navajo silversmiths of all time.
Price $3,600
Please note as previously mentioned that there are serveral slight surface irregularities, dents and imperfections in the necklace as shown above. This is not unusual for a 55-60 year old piece of vintage jewelry; the overall condition of the choker is generally excellent.