Jonah Hill

Biography by Mateo James

Name-card for Jonah Hill (Hopi silversmith) — T.Skies Silversmith Directory

Name-card placeholder — hallmark imagery to follow.

Hopi · documented in the T.Skies hallmark reference library

Jonah Hill is a Hopi silversmith working in cast work, tufa casting with cuttlebone overlay, anti-elastic construction, coin silver, overlay, stamp and chisel-work, and set stones; he specializes in cuff bracelets and bangles. His Hopi name, Lomayoosi, means "Beautiful Appearance." The corpus records no birth year or active-period start.

Anti-elastic forming (anticlastic raising) shapes silver sheet into saddle-curved forms by hammering over stakes. Cuttlebone casting uses the porous inner shell of a cuttlefish as a mold. Coin silver refers to silver alloyed at approximately 90% purity, reused from historic coinage.

The Mark

"LOMAYOOSI (as part of the cast; may be with a tobacco clan symbol; the smoke from the pipe forms a tobacco flower — usually on overlay work); a foot print (beginning 2022)" — Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022).

References

  • Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Schiffer Publishing, 2022.

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