Turn over a piece of Native American or Southwest silver and there's usually something stamped on the back: a word, a few letters, a tiny picture. Those hallmarks can tell you what the metal is, who made the piece, and sometimes roughly when. They can also mislead you if you read too much into them. Here's how to read them.
Two kinds of marks
Most pieces carry one or both of these:
- A metal mark says what the piece is made of. STERLING, 925 and .925 all mean sterling silver, which is 92.5% silver. A metal mark says nothing about who made the piece.
- A maker's mark says who made it: a name, initials, a symbol, or some mix of the three.
In Britain, a hallmark is an official stamp from an assay office. With Native American and Southwest jewelry, people use the word for the maker's mark, and that's how it's used here.
A piece stamped only STERLING is silver from an unknown hand. A piece with a maker's mark and no metal mark may still be silver. It just doesn't say so.
Where to look
Check the back of pendants, pins and buckles, the inside of rings and cuffs, the back of earrings, and the area near a clasp. Marks are small and often worn. A 10x jeweler's loupe helps. So does a phone camera at its closest focus with a light coming in from the side, which throws shadow into the stamp. Go easy with a polishing cloth over a mark. Years of polishing are how marks disappear.
What maker's marks look like
- Full names. The easiest kind to read. The Ben Nighthorse ring in the shop is stamped BEN NIGHTHORSE, the hallmark of Northern Cheyenne jeweler Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
- A name plus a tribe. Zuni artists often add ZUNI to their mark. The Effie Calavaza snake cuff reads EFFIE C ZUNI.
- Handwritten signatures. Some artists sign in script or engrave their mark by hand instead of using a stamp. The Artie Yellowhorse studs are signed in script on the back.
- Initials. The most common kind, and the hardest to pin down. More on that below.
- Symbols. Some artists use a small picture, alone or next to their initials.
- Trader and company marks. Some marks belong to a trading post or company, not a person. Bell Trading Post in Albuquerque, for example, stamped its pieces with a small bell. A mark like that tells you who sold the piece, not which silversmith made it.
Initials are a starting point, not proof
Hundreds of Southwest silversmiths have worked under their initials, and plenty of them share the same two letters. Hallmark books often list several artists under the same initials. A single letter on its own is even harder to trace.
So initials narrow the field. To pin down a maker, the work itself has to match: the stones, the construction, the style that artist is known for. A second source, like an entry in a hallmark book, a trader's tag or an original receipt, makes it solid. It also helps to know that some family workshops share one mark among several relatives, and some artists changed their mark over the years.
Why a lot of older pieces aren't signed
Before the 1970s, most Native American silversmiths didn't sign their work. Much of it was made for trading posts and the tourist trade, and the maker's name wasn't part of the sale. Hallmarks became common in the 1970s, when demand for turquoise jewelry boomed and imitations flooded the market. A hallmark was a way to show who really made a piece.
So an unsigned piece from the 1940s isn't a red flag. It just means the maker can't be confirmed from the piece itself. The earliest work may not have a metal mark either. Before sheet sterling was easy to get, smiths often hammered their silver out of U.S. and Mexican coins.
How to spot Mexican silver
A lot of Southwest-looking jewelry was made in Mexico, especially in Taxco, and much of it is excellent. It's its own tradition and should be sold as what it is. Here's what to look for:
- MEXICO or HECHO EN MEXICO, usually with 925 or STERLING.
- The eagle mark. From about 1948 to 1980, Mexican silver was stamped with a government eagle and a number. The number identified the registered maker. The Taxco ring in the shop is stamped SC and 925 with eagle number 3.
- Letter-and-number codes like TS-09. These replaced the eagle around 1980. The first letter is the city (T for Taxco, M for Mexico City, G for Guadalajara), the second is the first letter of the maker's name, and the number is the maker's registration.
- Brand names with MEXICO. The Elk Creek earrings are stamped ELK CREEK STERLING MEXICO.
One to watch for: ALPACA, often stamped MEXICO ALPACA. Alpaca is nickel silver, a mix of copper, nickel and zinc. It looks like silver and contains none. The same goes for anything marked German silver or nickel silver.
How to look up a mark
These are the standard references:
- Hallmarks of the Southwest: Who Made It? by Barton Wright
- Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks by Bille Hougart
- Gregory Schaaf's American Indian Jewelry series of artist biographies
Collector forums and online hallmark lists help too, but check anything you find against a second source. Online lists copy each other, mistakes included.
And keep in mind that marks can be faked. Stamps get copied, and some imported pieces carry made-up names. A real-looking hallmark on work that doesn't look like that artist's is a reason to dig deeper.
How I label pieces in this shop
- Signed means there's a maker's mark on the piece. If I've matched it to an artist, the artist's name is in the title. If I haven't, the listing describes the mark, like the Kokopelli band, stamped ©S, maker unidentified.
- Attributed means the piece isn't signed, but something else points to a maker, usually a trader's tag. The listing says what it is, like the Sonoran Gold ring that came with a Running Bear Shop tag naming Jerryson Henio.
- Style, as in Navajo Style or Zuni Style, means the piece is made in that tradition but I can't confirm who made it, so I don't claim it's Native-made.
Being careful with those words isn't just good manners. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 makes it illegal to sell art or craft work in a way that falsely suggests it was made by a Native American or by a member of a particular tribe. A first violation can bring a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both for an individual, and fines up to $1,000,000 for a business. It's a truth-in-advertising law, and it protects the artists and the people who buy their work. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, whose ring is mentioned above, co-sponsored it as a congressman.
You can see signed work by Navajo, Zuni and Northern Cheyenne artists in the Signed Native American collection. Questions about a mark on something in the shop? Get in touch.