Franklin Kahn — Navajo Silversmith

Franklin Kahn is a Navajo silversmith and painter who works in traditional and contemporary stampwork. Gregory Schaaf's American Indian Jewelry I lists him as Navajo, born 1934 at Pine Springs, Arizona, active from about the 1970s in stampwork, fabricated work and set stones, and records a 1962 award at the Scottsdale Nationals and exhibitions at the Peabody Museum at Harvard, the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska and the Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin (Schaaf 2003, p. 201).

Bille Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks calls him an artist and silversmith working in a traditional style (Hougart 2022, p. 166). Both books name him the brother of Chester Kahn, and Schaaf names him a nephew of Tom and John Burnsides and of Mabel Burnsides Meyer (Hougart 2022, p. 166; Schaaf 2003, p. 201). Schaaf records his schooling at Shiprock in 1947 and 1948 and at the Indian boarding school in Stewart, Nevada, from 1948 to 1953 (Schaaf 2003, p. 201).

His hallmark

The two books record different marks, and neither says when each was used. Hougart gives K K DINE (Hougart 2022, p. 166); Schaaf records a stamped snowflake hallmark of three crossed lines (Schaaf 2003, p. 201).