Silver and Turquoise Pin with Stamped Symbols [SOLD]

There were many companies manufacturing silver jewelry in the early part of the 20^th century.  Among the most recognized are The Fred Harvey Company, Sun Bell of Albuquerque and Maisel’s Indian Trading Post of Albuquerque.  All these companies, and others, employed Native American craftsmen to make jewelry.  The company provided the materials and the Natives provided the talent.  Much of this pre-World War II jewelry is referred to as Fred Harvey jewelry, as a generic term.

This pin is typical of the thin-silver jewelry made prior to the 1940s.  It is profusely stamped with symbols invoking Indianness.  There is a beautiful blue/green oval and domed turquoise cabochon at the center.  At its ends are stamped a pair of Maltese crosses, then a pair of crossed arrows and then a pair of Nohokos, or Whirling Log symbols. There is stamping all around the edges of the pin and a couple of five-pointed stars.

It was this style of stamping that appealed to tourists and collectors in the 1920s and 1930s because it invoked a feeling of Indian-made, which, of course, it was.

Nohokos is the Navajo word for the Whirling Log symbol, a symbol which appears in Navajo sandpaintings, and was used in basketry, textiles, and even seen in petroglyphs. It was a popular symbol in early jewelry but its use was abruptly discontinued at the start of World War II.

Condition: very good condition

Recommended Reading: Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900-1955 by Dennis June

Provenance: from the collection of a family from Albuquerque