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A beautiful vintage Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild silver Child’s Concho Belt, c. 1950
Unlike children of many cultures, Navajo children really wear jewelry, regularly and often and particularly so for special occasions, like a Sunday visit into town, attending a fair or a dance or a rodeo or especially, coming in for the annual Gallup, New Mexico Ceremonial in August. Wearing jewelry, particularly a large abundance of it, including necklaces, bracelets, buttons, belts, collar bars and rings, by Navajo children just like by Navajo adults is a happy and beautiful display of family pride and prosperity.
And, as you can see in the photo below, a regular part of this regalia is a child’s silver Concho belt like the fine
one shown here. It’s not a toy, it’s not a Route 66 tourist souvenir, it’s a real Navajo Concho belt beautifully hand crafted by one of the talented silversmiths of the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild; the all-star team of Navajo and Pueblo artists started by Ambrose Roanhorse and Chester Yellowhair as an official Navajo Tribal Enterprise in 1941 and still going strong today. We will never know which of the Guild’s talented silversmiths made this particular belt as Guild regulations prohibit individual artists from using their individual hallmarks on pieces, only the Guild’s official “Horned Sun” hallmark and sometimes the word “Navajo” could be used. For more information about the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild, please click here.
At left, Navajo girls wearing silver concho belts, c. 1940's. Above center, The Navajo Guild's hallmark at one of its present-day outlets in Cameron, Arizona. At bottom center, the Navajo Guild's hallmark on this belt. At right, Navajo Guild Co-Founder and Director, Ambrose Roanhorse, c. 1940's.
Left photo source and © Pinterest.
The silver buckle is beautifully decorated with a traditional Navajo four-part or “Four-Directions” design done in
four deep elongated repousess and accentuated with nicely done stampwork designs and each of the ten oval silver conchos is also beautifully domed up or repoussed in its central area and then sparingly, but beautifully decorated around its perimeter edges with a very delicate stamp work border and the very outside edges are beautifully and delicately scalloped and stamp worked. This sparingly applied band of decoration around a wide expanse of plain beautifully polished silver is in proper keeping with one of the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild’s primary aesthetic
design precepts, letting the silver in their pieces “speak” by using sizable undecorated areas of silver only sparingly accentuated by applied stamp, chisel or file declaration and generally limiting the use of set stones.
This beautiful little jewel of a belt would look just wonderful wrapped around a child’s waist or hanging on a
wall or nicely displayed on a table or shelf for precisely what it is and what it was meant to be; a beautifully-made
and beautiful piece of precious Navajo jewelry, culture, tradition and history.
Price $1,475
This Concho belt consists of ten silver oval-shaped conchos and a rectangular silver buckle. The silver buckle measures 2" in width and 1 5/8" in height and each of the ten silver conchos measures 2" in wifth and 1 1/2" in height.
The buckle and conchos are all strung on a black cowhide leather belt strap which is 1" in width. The conchos are attached to the belt with the traditional copper loops soldered onto their backs. The belt's entire length end-to-end
is 27 1/2" ans the entire belt weighs 150 grams or 5 1/4 ounces. The buckle and conchos are all in excellent original vintage condition, particuarly so for its 75 or so years of age, with a nice amount of age-appropriate wear and a fine, mellow patina., The leather belt strap has some wear too, but it is in very good shape overall. The belt is propersly signed with the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild's official "Horned Sun" hallmark and the word "NAVAJO" in capital letters on the back of the buckle.