INDIAN SILVERSMITHING [SOLD]

by W. Ben Hunt

Publisher: Collier Books, New York

Softcover, 160 pages, illustrated with black and white photographs and sketches

From the Introduction:

Silver as a medium for the craftsman’s art is several centuries old, yet the art of silversmithing as practiced by the Navaho, Zuni, and other Pueblo Indians is relatively young.  Old Spanish writings indicate that as early as 1795 “Navajo captains were rarely seen without their silver ornaments,” but it was not until somewhere between 1850 and 1870 that the Navajos acquired the skill from the Mexican platero (silversmith).  From the Navahos the art spread to the Zunis, and to a lesser degree to other smaller tribes of the Pueblo groups.