Della Casi — Zuni Silversmith
Della Casi (1889–about 1963, per Baxter) 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.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. The Civilization of the American Indian Series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1944.
- Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2000.
- 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. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2003.
From the Library: Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944)
1944 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1944, not today.
Adair (1944) described the bench work Zuni women had long done for their husbands, which is where Della Casi began:
“They would make the raindrops and solder them to the shank, twist the wire and mount it around the bezel, and set the stones in the finished jewelry.”
— Adair (1944), p. 164 [5]
According to Adair (1944, p. 164), Della Casi was the first woman at Zuni to learn the craft, taught by her husband; during the middle of the 1920s, after helping him in this way, she learned more and more and soon became a full-fledged smith in her own right, and within a few years several other women followed her example. [5]
Adair (1944, p. 167) recorded that, in the late 1930s, Della Casi and her husband had the largest income of any single family at Zuni, close to $2,000 a year, and were the only smiths he knew of there with a shop apart from their house, a one-room shed behind it. [5]
Adair (1944, p. 198) listed Della Casi among the Zuñi silversmiths of 1940, with Casi and Hazel Casi listed beside her. [5]
From the Library: Baxter, Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry (2000)
2000 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2000, not today.
Baxter (2000, p. 28), who entered her as Della Casa Appa, gave her dates as 1889 to about 1963 and recorded that she was also called Casi or Della Casi. [6]
According to Baxter (2000, p. 28), her achievements inspired other Zuni women, and by 1940 at least 27 other women were working as jewelers. [6]
Baxter (2000, p. 29) recorded works by her in the School of American Research in Santa Fe and the Heard Museum in Phoenix. [6]
From the Library: Schaaf, American Indian Jewelry I (2003)
2003 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2003, not today.
Schaaf (2003), entering her as Della Casa-Appa, dated her start:
“She started making jewelry before 1923.”
— Schaaf (2003), p. 105 [7]
Schaaf (2003, p. 105) recorded her work in the C.G. Wallace and Tanner collections and in the 2002 Jewels of the Southwest exhibition in Santa Fe, with the Knifewing, Zuni maidens and flower heads as her favorite designs. [7]
Field Notes by Mateo James
I notice the books date her start differently. Bedinger has her learning from her husband in about 1926 and Hougart dates it to 1927, while Schaaf's 2003 entry says she started making jewelry before 1923. I show all three as printed.
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