Della Casi — Zuni Silversmith
Della Casi was the first woman at Zuni to work silver as a full smith. Margery Bedinger's Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers, drawing on Adair, writes that "The first woman to become a full-fledged silversmith was Della Casi, who learned from her husband in about 1926, when tourist demand was great and there were few smiths to supply it" (Bedinger 1973, p. 151). Bille Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks's chronology dates the same event to 1927, under the name Della Casa-Appa (Hougart 2022, p. 31).
Joe Dan and Joe P. Lowry's Turquoise Unearthed includes a photograph captioned "Zuni jeweler Della Casi, ca. 1935" (Lowry 2002, p. 29). Her rings served as models: the silversmith Lee Weebothee told Mark Bahti that the trader Robert Wallace showed him single-row, five-stone rings of hers with square stones and asked him to make some like them (Bahti 2007, p. 198).
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References
- Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973.
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks: Silversmiths, Designers, Guilds and Traders. 5th edition. Washington, DC: BilleHougartBooks, 2022.
- Lowry, Joe Dan, and Joe P. Lowry. Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide. Photography by Mark Nohl. Tucson, AZ: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2002.
- Bahti, Mark. Silver + Stone: Profiles of American Indian Jewelers. Tucson: Rio Nuevo Publishers, 2007.
This profile is maintained in support of Native American silversmiths and compiled from published references. See something inaccurate, or want to add to it? Contact us.