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A beautiful contemporary Navajo Ingot “Coin-Silver” Signet-style ring by Quaid Shorty, c. 2021
Navajo silversmith Quaid Shorty (b.1980’s) is renowned Navajo silversmith, Perry Shorty’s son and his former apprentice and, believe us, he is one very seriously talented chip off a brilliant old block. Quaid is already one mighty fine silversmith in his own right as this superb coin silver ring so eloquently attests. It is every bit as beautiful and as perfectly and precisely crafted as anything big daddy Shorty might have made himself as he himself would likely be very proud to admit. Quaid has exhibited the past few years at the prestigious annual Santa Fe Indian market and his work has been received there with great enthusiasm.
This fine signet-style ring is beautifully crafted of ingot coin silver. As his Father very often does, Quaid melted down old American silver coins and cast them into an ingot-silver “slug” which he then hammered out to form the body of the ring. He then formed the center square-shaped medallion by precisely chiseling in a central diamond design with a beautiful pattern of outwardly radiating “rays”, Quaid nicely finished decorating the ring with two encircling bands of elegant restrained chisel and stampwork running around the top and bottom of the ring’s silver shank.
The ring measures a size 6 1/2 on a professional graduated ring sizer. The ring’s silver shank is 9/16” in width at its widest center point and tapers down to 1/4” in width at the base of the shank. It weighs a very comfortable 9 grams or 3/8 ounce. The ring has perfect provenance, we recently acquired it directly from Quaid Shorty and it is in brand-new completely unworn original condition. The ring is signed “Quaid” on the interior in Quaid Shorty’s customary cursive signature again in a similar vein to that of his father. It is also marked “Coin-Silver”.
This ring is a remarkably accomplished piece from a remarkably talented young artist. It seriously makes you wonder
if young Quaid is this good already what will his work be like ten or fifteen years from now?
Price $575
