About the Author — Mateo James

Hi, my name is Mateo James. Welcome, and thank you for your interest.

I’ve been at the bench since 2007, working in the Southwestern tradition. For most of those years I’ve also studied the marks other silversmiths leave on the back of their work: who struck them, when, and what a mark can and can’t tell you.

That study turned into this library. It’s a reference, not a storefront. You can read every page of it without buying a thing.

What you’ll find here

A directory of silversmiths and their hallmarks. Field guides to the turquoise mines. Guides to the techniques, the forms and the history of Southwest jewelry, and to the traders and teachers who carried the craft from one generation to the next. It grows every week.

How we work

Every claim goes back to something you could check: a hallmark we’ve seen in hand, or a page in a book we own. The books are named and the pages are printed. When we quote, the words go in quotation marks.

Where the record stops, we stop. If a mark is unsourced, the page says so. If two books disagree, you’ll see both, and we won’t pretend to settle it.

A hallmark is a signature, often a date, and sometimes a lineage, a teacher’s hand standing behind a student’s. My job is to read it plainly, credit each maker for what they made, and leave the guesswork out.

And when we get something wrong, artists, families and readers tell us, and we fix it. Corrections are always welcome.

Where to start

Thank you for reading. I hope you find what you came for, and a few things you didn’t know to look for.

Of mixed Spanish, Welsh and Indigenous Native American descent. Southwestern by training. At the bench since 2007.

Sources

Every book cited on our pages:

  • Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.
  • Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2007.
  • Bassman, Theda, and Michael Bassman. Zuni Jewelry. Photographs by Gene Balzer. Revised and expanded 3rd ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2006.
  • Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Hopi Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1993.
  • Bassman, Theda. The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry. Photography by Gene Balzer. Walnut, California: Kiva Publishing, 1997.
  • Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000.
  • Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
  • Bourke, John G. The Snake Dance of the Moquis of Arizona. 1884.
  • Branson, Oscar T. Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries. Santa Fe: Treasure Chest Publications, 1975.
  • Bunzel, Ruth L. The Pueblo Potter: A Study of Creative Imagination in Primitive Art. 1929.
  • Chambless, Philip, and Mike Ryan II. Turquoise in America, Part One: The Great American Turquoise Rush, 1890–1910. Revised first edition. Callais Press, 2021.
  • Dubin, Lois Sherr. Jesse Monongya: Opal Bears and Lapis Skies. Hudson Hills Press, 2002.
  • Dubin, Lois Sherr. North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment: From Prehistory to the Present. Harry N. Abrams, 1999.
  • Dubin, Lois Sherr. The Glittering World: Navajo Jewelry of the Yazzie Family. 2014.
  • Franciscan Fathers. An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language. Saint Michaels, AZ: The Franciscan Fathers, 1910.
  • Frank, Larry, with the assistance of Millard J. Holbrook II. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest, 1868-1930. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1990. First published 1978 by New York Graphic Society.
  • Green, Jesse, ed. Zuni: Selected Writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Lincoln, NE and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1979.
  • Hodge, F. W., ed. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 30. Bureau of American Ethnology, 1907 (Part 1) and 1910 (Part 2).
  • Hougart, Bille. 100 Collectible Native American Silversmiths and Their Hallmarks. TBR International, 2020.
  • Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks: Silversmiths, Designers, Guilds and Traders. 5th ed. Washington, DC: BilleHougartBooks, 2022.
  • Jacka, Lois Essary. Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone. Photographs by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1995.
  • June, Dennis. Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900–1955. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013.
  • Khazeni, Arash. Sky Blue Stone: The Turquoise Trade in World History. The California World History Library 20. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014.
  • Kunz, George F. Gems and Precious Stones of North America. New York: The Scientific Publishing Company, 1890.
  • Kunz, George Frederick. Natal Stones: Birth Stones, Sentiments and Superstitions Associated with Precious Stones. 26th ed. New York: Tiffany & Co., [c. 1923]. Lists copyright 1909 by Tiffany & Co.
  • Laufer, Berthold. Notes on Turquois in the East. Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. XIII, No. 1. Chicago, 1913.
  • Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002.
  • Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise: The World Story of a Fascinating Gemstone. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2010.
  • Lund, Marsha Mayer. Indian Jewelry: Fact and Fantasy. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1976.
  • Manley, Ray. Ray Manley's Collecting Southwestern Indian Arts & Crafts. Text by Clara Lee Tanner and others; photography by Naurice Koonce, Ray Manley and Alan Manley. Tucson: Ray Manley Photography, 1979. Includes Clara Lee Tanner, "Southwest Indian Silverwork," pp. 39–41.
  • Pardue, Diana F. Shared Images: The Innovative Jewelry of Yazzie Johnson and Gail Bird. Museum of New Mexico Press, 2007.
  • Pardue, Diana F., with the Heard Museum. Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry. Photography by Craig Smith. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith, 2007.
  • Pogue, Joseph E. The Turquois: A Study of Its History, Mineralogy, Geology, Ethnology, Archaeology, Mythology, Folklore, and Technology. Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XII, Part II, Third Memoir. Washington, 1915.
  • Rosnek, Carl, and Joseph Stacey. Skystone and Silver: The Collector’s Book of Southwest Indian Jewelry. Prentice-Hall, 1976.
  • Ryan, Mike, II, and Philip Chambless. Turquoise in America, Part Two: 1910–1990. Callais Press, 2020.
  • Schaaf, Gregory, with Angie Yan Schaaf. American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies, ca. 1800-present. American Indian Art Series, Vol. 5. Santa Fe: CIAC Press, 2003.
  • Schiffer, Nancy N. Turquoise Jewelry. Revised 4th ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008.
  • Schiffer, Peter N. Indian Jewelry on the Market. Text and photography by Peter N. Schiffer. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996.
  • Stacey, Joseph, ed. Turquoise Blue Book and Indian Jewelry Digest. Arizona Highways Collectors Series. Phoenix: Arizona Highways (Arizona Department of Transportation), 1975.
  • Stevenson, Matilda Coxe. The Zuni Indians. Bureau of American Ethnology, 1905.
  • Tryk, Sheila. Santa Fe Indian Market: Showcase of Native American Art. Photography by Mark Nohl; introduction by Allan Houser. Santa Fe, NM: Tierra Publications, in cooperation with SWAIA (Southwestern Association on Indian Affairs), 1993.
  • Turnbaugh, William A., and Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Foreword by Barry M. Goldwater. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2007 (copyright 1996 and 2007; first published 1988). ISBN 0-7643-2577-9.
  • Welch, Frankie. Indian Jewelry: How To Wear, Buy and Treasure America's First Fashion Pieces. McLean, VA: EPM Publications, Inc., 1973.
  • Woodward, Arthur. A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing. With field notes by Richard Van Valkenburgh. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 14, 2d ed. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, December 1946 (first edition 1938).
  • Wright, Margaret Nickelson. Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing. Revised edition. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003. Originally published by Northland Publishing.

Also cited at second hand, through the books above: Dexter Cirillo, Southwestern Indian Jewelry; Patricia McCraw, Tiffany Blue (2006); Pat and Kim Messier, Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry (2014); Frank R. Morrissey, Turquoise Deposits of Nevada (1968); Barton Wright, Hallmarks of the Southwest (2000).

Notes on the books: The Reference Shelf.