Remembrance and Opportunity

One day years ago, in a little town in Texas, a woman and her husband walked into the Turkey Mountain Traders booth at an antique show.  Many people have walked into many booths at many antique shows, but this turned into something special and beautiful.  The couple was Geraldine and Dave Howard, and they became very good clients of Turkey Mountain Traders, and close friends as well.  Geraldine's love of Native American silverwork and jewelry, and her desire to learn about it, was the basis for a beautiful friendship that lasted right up until her passing earlier this year.  And during this friendship, she put together an absolutely first-class collection of antique, vintage and contemporary Southwest Indian silverwork and jewelry.

Geraldine and Dave Howard with "Mysticator"

At the Whitehawk Show in Santa Fe on August 8-11, and again at the Native Treasures Show in the Santa Fe Eldorado Hotel on August 14-17, Turkey Mountain Traders is honored to present selections from the Geraldine Howard collection for purchase.  The collection and the pieces in it are a testament to Geraldine's taste and love for the material, and this is a fabulous opportunity to see and purchase outstanding pieces by great artists.  There will be top-quality antique pieces dating back as far as 1880, amazing vintage pieces by Kenneth Begay, Charles Loloma, Preston Monongye, Mark Chee, Julian Lovato and many others, and lovely contemporary pieces by Lee and Raymond Yazzie, Myron Panteah, Ron Bedonie and others.

This is the best private collection to come to market in many years, and anyone with an interest in Southwestern jewelry and silverwork should make plans to visit the Turkey Mountain Traders booth at these two shows.  Questions?  Give us a call at (480) 423-8777 or send us an email at info@turkey-mountain.com.

Silver and Gold

Silver and gold are both precious metals with many uses outside of the jewelry industry, and both are publicly traded commodities which can fluctuate wildly in price.  These price fluctuations can make or break the fortunes of investors, as well as having a major effect on the collecting passions of people in the American Indian jewelry world.  What has been the recent effect of some of the market activity?  Let's take a look at both cases, starting with silver.

At the time of this writing, silver was trading at 80 cents per gram, or $34.16 per dwt.  That is just off the 5-year high of $34.30 per dwt, which was achieved on Friday, March 28, 2025.  The 5-year low was $12.28 per dwt on March 19, 2020.  How does that affect the price of American Indian jewelry?  The simple answer in terms of historic and vintage pieces is very little, because the value of the silver in these pieces is quite a bit less than the market value of the piece.  As an example, let's look at this bracelet by Johnny Mike Begay, brother of Kenneth Begay and an important silversmith in his own right:

A beautiful piece of art, no doubt.  The total weight is 46 grams, which means at current market price, there is $36.80 worth of silver in this bracelet.  (The weight of the turquoise is under a gram.)  If silver doubled in price, there would still be only $73.60 worth of silver in the bracelet.  Johnny Mike Begay bracelets of this quality have a current market value of far more than that, so there is no danger of anyone with any knowledge of the marketplace melting this down.  Nor is there a chance of the price of silver going up enough to materially impact the market value of this intact bracelet--silver value in antique and vintage pieces is a very small component in determining the market value of any high-quality piece.

Where the cost of silver shows up as a factor is in newer and less artistically important pieces, generally with a price under $300.  There, without the history and artistic importance of a piece like the bracelet above, fluctuations in the price of silver can definitely impact a piece's market value, to the point where some pieces of lower worth are actually most valuable as scrap.

Gold was not in general use in American Indian jewelry before the mid-1960s, but many very expensive contemporary pieces are either partly or all gold, either 14k or 18k.  The current price of gold as I sit typing this is $88.38 per gram, or $3,134.70 per dwt.  That is for pure gold--14k and 18k would be less, but still quite a bit more expensive than silver.  At those price levels, a bracelet like the one above, if it was made of 14k gold at $56.15 per gram, would contain nearly $2,600 worth of gold.  At those levels, only the most high-level jewelers can afford to make such a piece, even if, as is often the case, they are receiving financial backing.  

With gold being as expensive as it is currently, it is vitally important for collectors to know whether a finished piece is 14k or 18k, because 18k is currently worth nearly 30% more than 14k.

The lesson to learn?  When someone says how much the price of gold has impacted the American Indian jewelry market, they are probably right.  When they say the same about the price of silver, it only holds true at a lower dollar level. 

The Best of FP

One of the finest and most admired Navajo silversmiths to ever swing a hammer was Fred Peshlakai, whose influence is still being felt to this very day.  The son of Slender Maker of Silver, he was the first Navajo smith known to highlight turquoise from the great American mines, and the earliest Navajo artist to regularly incorporate wirework and applique designs.  The quality of his stampwork has never been surpassed, and from a business standpoint he was one of the first Indian artists to open a shop of his own--in Los Angeles, no less.

His work is highly prized by collectors and museums alike, though in fact, his production was large.  His pieces are not rare to the market, actually.  What is rare is to find a piece that incorporates all the factors that make one of his superior pieces truly great: top-quality turquoise, perfect balance of design, and a proper hallmark.  (Many of his pieces do not have a hallmark.  Identification as his work is through careful study of the stamps used, materials contained within, and the design elements.  But that is an inexact science at best.)  When you find a piece that contains all the elements to be great, it is a good day indeed.  Here is our latest find from Fred Peshlakai, which certainly qualifies:

The first thing you notice about this bracelet is the wonderfully matrixed turquoise, which is almost certainly #8.  Peshlakai had a great preference for certain types of turquoise, especially #8, Lone Mountain and Blue Gem, much of which he procured from a trader named Doc Wilson.  Unusual for #8, the cabochon is domed.  The second thing is the applique work, including ropework, round wire and two wonderful repoussed hearts.  The straight lines of ropework at the top and bottom occur with some frequency in Peshlakai's work, and nowhere else.

The stampwork is clean and even, though not as complex as on some other Peshlakai pieces.  However this can be explained by looking at the very small surface area available for stampwork.  

And the final piece to the puzzle--the hallmark.  This bracelet has his F. P. hallmark, this time inside a cartouche.  It is hard to say exactly when this hallmark was used, but this bracelet likely dates to the early 1950s judging by the design and quality of turquoise.

This bracelet has an inside size of 5 5/8" with a 1 3/16" opening that can be adjusted, a width of 1 1/2", and a weight of 68 grams.  It is SOLD; email us or call (480) 423-8777 for details.  For more information on Peshlakai, you can consult Steven Curtis' book NAVAJO SILVERSMITH FRED PESHLAKAI: HIS LIFE AND ART.  And be sure to check the website for other examples of Peshlakai's work.