John Burnsides — Navajo Silversmith

John Burnsides is one of the smiths Adair followed most closely. John Adair's The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths records him in 1938 as the half-brother who first taught Tom Burnsides wrought work, living a few miles north of Tom's place (Adair 1944, p. 55), and follows his silver from his bench to the trading post at Pine Springs and on to a wholesale house in Gallup (Adair 1944, p. 116).

Adair's figures make him unusually visible. John worked silver all year, most of it from November to April, and kept his own account of what he made: $192.60 in January 1938, $211.30 in February, $133.10 in March, $148.75 in April and $33.00 in May. Most went to the trader at Houck, some to the post at Pine Springs. His wife ground turquoise and did some of the silver work, his two sons helped him, and his income in 1937 came to more than a thousand dollars, by far the greater part of it from silver (Adair 1944, pp. 107, 113). He was also a singer. "Once in a while I dream about the designs I have put on my silver," he told Adair, "and sometimes I see bracelets and rings that I am going to make" (Adair 1944, p. 107).

Bille Hougart's Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks lists him as "John Burnside (1909-1988; Navajo)," active from the 1920s to the 1960s in sand cast work, hand wrought work and overlay, at Pine Springs, C. G. Wallace, Kelsey Indian Trading Co. and Wide Ruins (Hougart 2022, p. 73). Hougart (2022) spells it Burnside. Adair's ages for the brothers, taken around 1938, would put John's birth near 1903 (Adair 1944, pp. 55, 106).

His hallmark

Hougart gives his mark as J B (Hougart 2022, p. 73). Julius Burbank, a Navajo smith listed on the same page, also marks J B, and John's son Frank Burnside marks F. BURNSIDE (Hougart 2022, p. 73).