Beautiful! Everything I would want in a Concho belt. Do you plan on wearing it? Congrats on your lovely acquisition!
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Hey @TaraFawn75, thank you for your kindness. I do and I have! Last night I met a friend for dinner and wore it, along with a belt that was performing the duty of holding my trousers in place. I enjoy stacking these older concho belts on more simple belts with one of my buckles, personally, I think it’s a neat look.
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What I found really interesting about your belt is that the elliptical stamping around the openings was done after the openings were cut out. Normally the stamping would be done first and then the openings cut to provide clean edges. In this case it looks like the openings were cut first, and the silversmith looked at the design and decided to add stamping around the openings after most of the other work, exclusive of doming was completed. It’s really a beautiful piece of work, and the scalloping around the opening created by elliptical stamps placed late in the concho’s fabrication add an interesting and unexpected element.
Love the arrow stamps, and horseshoe motif on the buckle as well. This type of masterfully detailed stamp, and stamping is long overdue for a serious revival, IMO.
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Thank you for your insight, Mike. Your words ring true thinking through the process. With the openings cut first, when the elliptical stamping was performed, the edges of the cutouts would have swedged, as they are.
I actually prefer these kinds of imperfections, it really puts the piece in the hands of the silversmith that crafted it, and allows us to think through their process, which I find fascinating.
With contemporary masters like Perry Shorty and Cippy Crazyhorse utilizing early-era technique, tools, and processes, I think it’s something that is definitely appreciated, as they have become so renowned and celebrated.
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Thanks Aaron, but you’re the real inspiration here. You inspire me to keep my standards high, dig deeper in search of unique pieces, and to be patient - all qualities needed to assemble a collection of exemplary Native American silver work.
As mentioned privately, your belt is outstanding and could easily find a place in a museum. Absolutely beautiful. 
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Great belt for sure.
Some felt this was a 2nd Phase belt but for me it was a tad later- perhaps 1920’s?
It’s a great belt with a great aesthetic.
Congratulations- wear it well!
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Thank you, @August.
Would you like to share your thoughts as to why you feel it was crafted later? It’s always nice to hear the thoughts of others.
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Appreciate you asking. No, thanks!
Enjoy your lovely belt and again congratulations.
While the hunt for suitable, vintage leather for some of my buckles seems to be an excercise in futility, (at least for me) every once in a while I stumble across buckles that may, or may not, work with leather I currently utilize. One of these decades I’ll follow @TAH’s fine example and craft a belt with interchangeable billets.
Here are a few buckles I’ve happened upon recently.
The only one I’ve yet to wear is the sandcast, center bar buckle with two turquoise settings. While it’s a bit on the smaller side, I felt that the unique pattern, the quality of the casting and it’s lovely stones more than made up for it’s smaller stature.
Navajo, ca. 40’s/50’s, sandcast sterling, 2 3/4" x 2 3/8", 44 grams, accomodates a 5/8" belt
Navajo, ca. 20’s, 3 1/2" x 2 7/8", converted from an ingot silver concho, 84 grams, accomodates an 1 1/2" belt
Navajo, ca. 1945, sterling, 3 5/8" x 3 1/4", 75 grams, accomodates an 1 1/2" belt
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These are all gorgeous. That sandcast one is unusual; it would have been the first one I would have worn!
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Thank you @Ziacat!
For myself as well…if I had a belt with a 5/8" leather billet. 
This one falls into my “may not work” category, at least for the time being.
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I misunderstood. I was thinking you said that was the first one you’d worn; apparently my reading comprehension was lacking last night 
I had a buckle that I seldom wore, because it was very small, and I only had one small belt (which I wasn’t fond of), so I had it changed up to a pendant. I know that’s not something you want to do with this, but I understand purchasing a buckle even when you know you might not wear it much.
An artist that I love (not Native American) goes all over out west and finds old saddle, reins, and harness leather. A lot of it’s from the 1800s. Then she reworks it for her belts and cuffs.
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The leather conundrum I find myself in is something I’ve been (very) slowly working on getting out of. One of my intents in collecting is to put some honest wear on the pieces as well. I’ll come up with something!
Would this happen to be Brit West? I recall you discussing her here on the forum.
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Yep! I met her at a Park City art market, and immediately loved how she uses old leather.
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Aaron, all three buckles are fine examples of Navajo silver work and design. Absolutely beautiful and your photography really captures and elevates their beauty. And thanks for posting both sides of that pretty little pin at the bottom left.
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Thank you for you compliments, Tom. If anyone has an eye for buckles and photographing them, it’s you my friend.
I’m glad you like that pin! It’s coin silver, as could probably be assumed by most by the ridges present around the periphery, ca. 1920. I’ll snap a couple clearer photos of it tonight to share, I think you’ll enjoy the old clasp as well.
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As a follow up to @TAH’s interest in the coin pin, I wanted to share these photos and information I dug up.
I’d like to mention that I am admittedly ignorant when it comes to coins and don’t have much knowledge at all concerning them. With that being said, if I portray anything incorrectly or my verbage is off, I’d like the coin-wise members here to please step in.
Here are a couple close ups of the pin.
Upon photographing the reverse side, I noticed “50 Centavos, Z?, S .9027”, which I learned was the value, mint, assayer’s initial and fineness.
A quick search revealed a Mexican Peso from 1877 that bore similar impressions.
On my pin, I could barely make out the portion above the afformentioned details. I found that what I was looking at was the bottom of the law scroll. In the following photos, one can just make out one of the scales of justice, the hilt of one of the swords, and the bottom of the scroll.
In my fourth posted photo, the radiant liberty cap is just barely visible as well, in the top right portion of the pin. All of this jives with it being a Mexican Peso, valued at 50 Centavos, minted between 1869 and 1895. The precise date would obviously be on the obverse side, so we’ll never know. I purchased this as a ca. 1920’s pin, but it’s pretty neat being able to date the coin like this.
I would be interested to hear from @Steve, @StevesTrail, @gt75, or any other member with knowledge of coins, as to their thoughts, or perhaps to smack my knuckles with a ruler and place a dunce cap on me while any of my statements are corrected. 
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Hey @Steve, I’ve attempted to magnify the front of the pin to make anything out, to no avail. Thank you for your input.
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