Herbert Taylor — Navajo Silversmith

Herbert Taylor was a Navajo silversmith who did everything by hand and stamp, and in his last years did it in gold. Paula A. Baxter's Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry gives his dates as 1951 to 1996 and records that his interest began in childhood, watching his grandfather work the metal; he started making jewelry in 1972 and was showing at Indian art shows by 1984 (Baxter 2000, p. 172). Lois Essary Jacka's Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone credits his father and sister with teaching him traditional techniques (Jacka 1995, p. 78).

He stopped for a few years. "I quit in 1979, and didn't start again until 1984," he told Jacka (as quoted in Jacka 1995, p. 40). Baxter credits early training as a welder for his ease in copper, gold and silver, and records that he made his own tempered-steel stamps and preferred tufa casting to lost-wax casting. His 1992 awards came at the Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial, the Heard Museum Guild Fair and the Southwest Museum Indian Art Show (Baxter 2000, p. 172).

Jacka records that he began working in gold in 1988 and by 1995 used it almost exclusively, without changing the work: "I still handwork and handstamp everything. I'm doing traditional work, it's just in gold instead of silver" (as quoted in Jacka 1995, p. 76). She shows a concha belt of his set with Lander turquoise, its raised rosettes and "butterflies" formed with male and female punch-and-die sets (Jacka 1995, p. 58), and an 18-karat gold ensemble in overlay with coral and Indian Mountain turquoise (Jacka 1995, p. 78). Sheila Tryk's Santa Fe Indian Market pictures him with Dina Huntinghorse among his silver concha belts and squash blossom necklaces (Tryk 1993, p. 56).

The mark he worked under

Hougart lists no mark under his own name. The entry for Dina Huntinghorse (Wichita/Kiowa), who collaborated with him until his death in 1996, gives her mark as D and H T (conjoined) (Hougart 2022, p. 148).