Navajo Five Band Sterling Silver Jewelry Bracelet with Twisted Wire by Verna and Franklin Tahe [SOLD]

C4220C-bracelet.jpg

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Verna and Franklin Tahe, Diné Jewelers
  • Category: Bracelets
  • Origin: Diné of the Navajo Nation
  • Medium: Sterling Silver
  • Size:
    5-¼” End to End;
    1-⅝” Opening; 1-½” Wide
  • Item # C4220C
  • SOLD

Artists' Signatures - Verna and Franklin Tahe, Navajo JewelryMore than one hundred and fifty years after the Diné first used sections of twisted metal for adornment, Verna and Franklin Tahe employed modern methods to create this banded Diné jewelry cuff.  Four sterling silver segments of thin finely twisted wire were skillfully interspersed between five bands of smooth sterling silver. All were carefully bound together at the ends. The result is a modern classic. The bracelet is signed on the edge with the hallmark TAHE and Sterling.

Smooth sterling silver bands and segments of twisted wire were arranged to create this elegant Diné cuff. Verna and Franklin Tahe work in a style that the couple learned from Franklin’s late grandfather. They have been active silversmiths since the 1980s. The couple’s distinctive jewelry is elegant and stylish.

The arrangement of alternating twisted wire and solid bands is one of the earliest forms of Diné jewelry. Describing the use of metal for jewelry at Bosque Redondo in his book, A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing, Arthur Woodward wrote: “The twisted bracelets of brass, copper, or iron wire. . .were worn singly or by the half dozen on the wrist. Co-existent with these twisted wire forms were the single strands of brass or iron wire, clipped and bent around the arm.”


Note: when we say Diné, as opposed to Navaho or Navajo, we are referring to the people and not the government.  Since 1969, their government refers to itself as the Navajo Nation.  

Condition: The Navajo Five Band Sterling Silver Jewelry Bracelet with Twisted Wire by Verna and Franklin Tahe is in excellent condition.

Provenance: From a member of the Maisel family from Albuquerque

Recommended Reading:

- Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers by Margery Bedinger  

- A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing by Arthur Woodward

Relative Links: Verna and Franklin Tahe, Navajo Nation, Jewelry


HOW TO MEASURE YOUR WRIST FOR BRACELET SIZE

Verna and Franklin Tahe, Diné Jewelers
  • Category: Bracelets
  • Origin: Diné of the Navajo Nation
  • Medium: Sterling Silver
  • Size:
    5-¼” End to End;
    1-⅝” Opening; 1-½” Wide
  • Item # C4220C
  • SOLD

C4220C-bracelet.jpgC4220C-large.jpg Click on image to view larger.