Zuni Pueblo Multi-stone Sun Face Earrings [SOLD]

This pair of earrings is fashioned for pierced ears. The earrings are not signed with the name of the maker. The circle of the face of the sun was set in turquoise, jet, mother of pearl, and spondylus shell in mosaic style. The sunface has a beautiful feather display of spondylus shell. The inlay stonework is highlighted with exquisite silver wire and dots. The earrings are an excellent example of channel inlay technique.

What is significant about the Zuni Sunface? The two sections of the Sunface image represent two important ideas. The first is the pairing of one with the family. To the Zuni people, family is as critical to life as food and water and they also believe each person is unique and special. Each requires the other, and both become represented as a main component in the Sunface. The other meaning is to symbolize the coming and going of the sun, sunrise and sunset, or day and night. The continuity of these events gives hope and stability to the Zuni; neither can exist without the other.

Although the Tawa, or Sun Katsina is an important part of Zuni ceremonialism, the use of the Sun Face was most probably prompted by the rise of tourism in the Southwest in the 1920s. According to Margery Bedinger in Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers, "Before 1920, the Zuni smith, like the Navajo, had made his silver for his own consumption, or to sell to other members of his tribe. It was designed accordingly. At first it was this jewelry that the traders picked up. Next the traders persuaded the Zuni smiths to make ornaments for them to sell to tourists. This change affected the Zunis just as it had the Navajos. As the Zuni smith worked with the tourist in mind, much of his silver became the Indian's idea of the trader's idea of what the white man thought was Indian design."

Condition: new condition

Provenance: these Zuni Pueblo Multi-stone Sun Face Earrings are from the collection of a client from Colorado

Reference: Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers by Margery Bedinger

Recommended Reading: Navajo and Pueblo Earrings 1850-1945 - Collected by Robert V. Gallegos by Robert Bauver

TAGS: Southwest Indian Jewelry, Zuni Pueblo