Native American Silver Brooch | ||
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Posted 10 years ago
stwillia76
(137 items)
I have a pin brooch I believe to be Native American. It is not marked. I still believe it to be silver. Could it be Hopi? What is the figure of? Lots of questions.
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It reminds me of the Koyemsi/Mudhead Kachina. I'm not a collector of Hopi art/artifacts, so I might be wrong. It's just what (on knee-jerk reaction) it reminded me of.
I am not sure, but it looks to me to be a Navajo Kachina. I don't think Hopi used stones much in their work, more intricate silver work. And the oldest of Native American pieces are generally not signed. Very nice piece!
It depicts a Koyemsi, also known as a Mudhead (although neither name is what the Hopi or Zuni call them). They are a part of the pueblo culture, found at Hopi and Zuni. Technically, they are not kachinas. They are in a class of their own, neither kachina nor human...a fact often ignored, since they are usually associated with kachinas, and act as their assistants. But they are not related at all to the Navajo.
Although the Navajo do make carvings, which are listed on eBay as "Navajo kachina dolls", the Navajo do not have kachinas in their culture...they just have adopted the art form from the Hopi, usually with no regard for accuracy. There are no Navajo kachinas, only Navajo copies or interpretations of Hopi or Zuni kachina dolls. If you buy directly from the Navajo carvers, they generally refer to the carvings as "dolls" or "carved figures." By the time they reach the secondary market, though, they have become "kachina dolls," especially when sold by sellers who are unfamiliar with the cultures involved.
So that's a rather lengthy way of getting to the point that this could have been made by a Navajo artist, since the Navajo have freely "borrowed" images from other cultures and used them in their own art work.
I agree that inclusion of stones is generally not associated with Hopi jewelry, but other than the use of what appears to be turquoise and red coral, the rest of the piece is in the style of classic Hopi silver overlay, which has been made for the last 60 or 70 years.
But what it gets down to is, if you don't know who made it, it can't legally be sold as Hopi, Navajo, or even Native American. I doubt if that would discourage any serious buyer anyway, since it looks like a very desirable piece.
Thanks CanyonRoad! I'm glad it was a lengthy answer as I definately learned a lot!