Ike Wilson — Navajo/Diné Silversmith Hallmark
Navajo/Diné · documented in the T.Skies hallmark library
Ike Wilson (c.1900–1942; Navajo) was active from the 1920s through 1942. His techniques included fabricated silverwork, set stones, stamp work, twisted wire, and repoussé. He produced jewelry, flatware, hollowware, and miniatures.
According to an interview John Adair conducted with Ike Wilson in 1939, Wilson owned several hundred hand-made stamps. Wilson worked for many years with the Kelsey Trading Company near Zuni, beginning about 1925. He also did work for C. G. Wallace, John Kirk, and Mike Kirk, and did silverwork for lapidary artists at C. G. Wallace, including Ida Vacit Poblano and Teddy Weahkee.
His wife and likely collaborator in silver work was Katherine Wilson, who used his stamp after his death in 1942. A corrected attribution published in Messier (2014) showed that the bow-and-arrow stamp belongs to Ike and Katherine Wilson — not to Ike alone, as had been previously attributed. (Barton Wright [2000] had also attributed the stamp to Austin Wilson, but Messier [2014] corrected this.) Ike Wilson was the brother-in-law of Charlie Bitsui.
The mark
The mark is a bow-and-arrow stamp. Corrected attribution (Messier, 2014) places this mark as belonging to Ike and Katherine Wilson; Katherine continued using it after Ike's death.
References
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Washington, DC: BilleHougartBooks, 2022.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. (Interview with Ike Wilson, 1939, cited in Hougart.)
- Messier, 2014 (corrected attribution for bow-and-arrow stamp, cited in Hougart 5e).
- 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.
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From the Library: Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944)
1944 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1944, not today.
Writing of Charlie Bitsui's arrival at Zuni about 1930, Adair (1944) noted:
“His sister's husband, Ike Wilson, was already a well-known Navajo craftsman in the pueblo.”
— Adair (1944), p. 79 [1]
In a footnote, Adair (1944) recorded the family's earlier tie to Zuni:
“Ike Wilson's father, Son of White Haired Man, was the first Navajo silversmith to live in the village and work for a trader (Charles Kelsey).”
— Adair (1944), p. 79 [1]
In the late 1930s, Adair (1944) named Ike Wilson among the highest-earning Navajo smiths:
“Ike Wilson and his wife have an income of close to $2,000 a year from their silver.”
— Adair (1944), p. 112 [1]
According to Adair (1944, p. 140), Mrs. Lewis of Zuni wrote to him that the trader Kelsey had Ike Wilson make the first silver Knife bird in 1932, from a design on a Fred Harvey letterhead; the first ones were plain, and later he inlaid them with turquoise. Adair noted that the Zuni smith Horace Aiuli claimed the first Knife-Wing, in 1928. [1]
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.
Name card shown; hallmark photo to come.