Alice Quam — Zuni Silversmith

Alice Quam set the stones; her husband, Duane Quam, made the silver. Paula A. Baxter's Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry calls the couple "Highly regarded traditional jewelers" and lists Alice as born March 23, 1929, at Zuni. She learned from her parents, Wayne and Doris Ondelacy, and began making jewelry in earnest in 1945, after Duane came home from service in World War II; "she sets the stones and he makes the silver housing." Their stones are large, finely polished and matched for color and size, in plain wire bezels with twisted wire borders, often ending in raindrops, and Baxter records the couple's awards at the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in 1987, 1988, 1992 and 1993 (Baxter 2000, p. 146).

Bille Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks lists her as "Alice Quam (?-2003; Zuni)," active since the 1940s in cluster work and petit point, a "Multiple award winner" who started using a hallmark in the 1960s, and names her sister, Bernice Leekya, and among her children Lorraine Waatsa (Hougart 2022, p. 257). Hougart's own entry for her father names him Warren Ondelacy, not Wayne (Hougart 2022, p. 233).

Nancy N. Schiffer's Turquoise Jewelry shows a cluster bracelet of hers, and a belt of the 1970s with round medallions, thirty-nine petit points and a round turquoise in each cluster, 366 stones in all, forty-nine inches long (Schiffer 2008, pp. 38, 49). Theda and Michael Bassman's Zuni Jewelry shows a Sleeping Beauty turquoise bracelet of 1991, a coral bracelet, a concha belt of thirteen coral cluster conchas from the 1980s, and pendants of 1991 and 1998 (Bassman and Bassman 2006, pp. 6, 19, 20, 37, 59).

Her hallmark

Hougart gives her marks as A. Q., A & D Q (with her husband's initial) and Q (Hougart 2022, p. 257). A & D Q is the couple's joint mark. Her daughter Alvina Quam may have used the A. Q. stamp for a time after Alice's death, so an A. Q. piece is not certainly hers (Hougart 2022, p. 257).