Frank Patania's Thunderbird Shop: History, Smiths & Marks

The Thunderbird Shop was the silver shop Frank Patania opened in Santa Fe in 1927, first under the name Thunderbird Curios (Hougart 2022, p. 371). A second shop followed in Tucson in 1937 (Hougart 2022, p. 371; Baxter 2000, p. 129). Patania was not Native. He was "an immigrant from Italy" (Baxter 2000, p. 129), and he employed Native and non-Native smiths alike. Patania's business motto said what he sold: "Sterling Silver Made to Order" (Bedinger 1973, p. 213, quoting Neumann 1956).

Founding

Patania "came to the Southwest in the 1920s to heal his tuberculosis," after working on the East Coast (Baxter 2000, p. 129). He did not set up as a trader. The encyclopedist Paula Baxter puts it plainly: "Rather than employing the conventions of the Indian TRADER, Patania established workshops for custom-made sterling silver jewelry and METALWARE" (Baxter 2000, p. 129). Writing in 1956, Neumann described him as a man "who does not think of or call himself an Indian Trader" (Bedinger 1973, p. 213). The name Thunderbird Curios "was later changed to the Thunderbird Shop" (Hougart 2022, p. 371). Our sources don't record when, or why.

The Santa Fe shop closed in 1964, after Patania's death, and his son Frank Patania, Jr. reopened it in 1968 (Hougart 2022, pp. 239, 371). The sources disagree on the year he died. Hougart gives 1899–1964 (Hougart 2022, p. 371), and so does Baxter in two places (Baxter 2000, pp. 66, 129). A third Baxter entry puts his death "in 1968" (Baxter 2000, p. 103). We follow 1964.

People

Hallmark scholar Bille Hougart calls the shop "the home base where a select group of talented Native American silversmiths could hone their skills, and where his (and their) products were sold" (Hougart 2022, p. 371). His 2020 book adds that many of them "stayed there for years" (Hougart 2020, p. 63).

  • Lewis Lomay (Hopi) went to work in the Santa Fe shop during the Depression (Wright 2003, p. 21). Hopi-silver historian Margaret Wright says he "smithed there for thirteen years" (Wright 2003, p. 21); Hougart says he began in 1934 (Hougart 2020, p. 52). In Gregory Schaaf's account, Lomay painted for Patania for a year before making jewelry, and Patania "taught him goldsmithing, casting and fine finish work" (Schaaf 2003, p. 223).
  • Walter Muchka (Hopi) "Worked with Lewis Lomay for Frank Patania while in Santa Fe" (Wright 2003, p. 76).
  • Jimmy Herald, Sr. (Navajo) spent many years as a bench smith there and "worked independently after the Thunderbird Shop closed in 1964" (Hougart 2020, p. 37).
  • Julian Lovato (Kewa) is the second date conflict. Hougart has him starting in 1952 (Hougart 2022, p. 199; Hougart 2020, p. 54). Baxter has him there "from 1946 to 1968" (Baxter 2000, p. 103).
  • Charles Begay (Navajo) was a "Silversmith for Frank Patania's Thunderbird Shop" (Hougart 2022, p. 48).
  • Harry Sakyesva (Hopi) "worked for the Thunderbird Shop in the 1950s" (Hougart 2020, p. 82).
  • Alberto Contreras (Mexican-American) and Carlos Díaz worked there before opening their own Tucson shops, in 1949 and 1958 (Hougart 2022, pp. 356, 357). Arturo (Arthur) and Andy Rivera left to open Rivera's (Hougart 2022, p. 267). Hougart's list also names Don Enos (Hougart 2022, p. 371).

It was a family shop too. Frank's brother, Carmelo "Pat" Patania, worked there from 1928 (Hougart 2022, p. 239). Frank Jr. joined in 1956 and closed the Santa Fe shop in 2007 (Hougart 2022, p. 239). His son, Sam Patania, took over the Tucson shop in 1990, and it was renamed "Patania Sterling Silver Originals" (Hougart 2022, p. 240). Our sources stop at 2022 and don't say whether it still operates.

Marks and what to look for

"The shop's logo, a 'Thunderbird,' is stamped on each product" (Hougart 2022, p. 371). In the 1960s "a few pieces" by Jimmie Herald and Don Enos carried their personal stamps, while Frank Jr.'s stamp "served as the 'shop mark'" (Hougart 2022, p. 239). Patania also taught hallmarking to the Native smiths who worked for him (Baxter 2000, p. 129).

Hougart's sequence, taken from Frank Jr.'s own paper on the shop's hallmarks (Hougart 2022, p. 371):

  • F P rocker-engraved inside a diamond: the earliest mark, used sporadically, and found on items attributed to Frank Patania, Sr.
  • A thunderbird stamp, first used in the late 1930s; it measures about 2mm, wingtip to wingtip.
  • F P conjoined and embossed, from the early 1940s.
  • F P conjoined inside an oval, embossed or incised, in the 1950s.
  • F P conjoined and incised, with a thunderbird stamp; or a thunderbird stamp alone, with sterling.

After Patania died, "his widow, Aurora, gave the thunderbird stamp to Lovato" (Hougart 2022, p. 199). As of 2000, Baxter wrote that the mark "is now the property of Santo Domingo jeweler Julian Lovato" (Baxter 2000, p. 66).

Look for the materials the sources name: "plain SILVER, NUGGET-STYLE silver, and SHADOW BOX settings" (Baxter 2000, p. 129). The shop "was among the early adopters of using petrified wood in jewelry" (Hougart 2022, p. 371).

Legacy

Patania, Hougart writes, "established a style of hand crafted southwestern American jewelry by blending European silversmith technology and Native American design" (Hougart 2022, p. 371). That influence earned him the name "William Spratling of the American Southwest" (Hougart 2022, p. 371). Baxter goes further. She credits the made-to-order practice as "an important influence on the making of Southwestern Indian jewelry; many native silversmiths became studio jewelers by adopting work practices Patania had introduced to them" (Baxter 2000, pp. 129–130).

Hougart uses "Patania style" as a working term for the shop's smiths. The Riveras worked "in the 'Patania' style" (Hougart 2022, p. 267). Herald did too, "using file work, shadow box and set stones" (Hougart 2020, p. 37). Lovato "became a master of the 'Patania style'" (Hougart 2022, p. 199). Hougart counts the Thunderbird Shop among the shops whose hallmarks "have become collectible" (Hougart 2020, p. 8).

Oscar Branson's 1975 turquoise book credits pieces "courtesy ... Frank Patania's Thunderbird Shop, Tucson, Arizona," which places the Tucson shop in business as of 1975 (Branson 1975, pp. 33, 35).

A related shop. Carmelo Patania opened his own Kachina Shop in Tucson in 1959 and retired in 1980. His mark was C P (Hougart 2022, p. 239). It was a separate business.

Sources

  1. Bille Hougart, Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed., 2022. pp. 48, 199, 239, 240, 267, 356, 357, 371.
  2. Bille Hougart, 100 Collectible Native American Silversmiths, 2020. pp. 8, 37, 52, 54, 63, 82.
  3. Paula A. Baxter, Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry, 2000. pp. 66, 103, 129–130.
  4. Gregory Schaaf, American Indian Jewelry I: 1,200 Artist Biographies, 2003. p. 223.
  5. Margaret Nickelson Wright, Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing, rev. ed., 2003. pp. 21, 76.
  6. Margery Bedinger, Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers, 1973. p. 213 (quoting Neumann 1956, p. 235).
  7. Oscar T. Branson, Turquoise: The Gem of the Centuries, 1975. pp. 33, 35.

Part of our Southwest Jewelry Business Directory.