As the Hougart site doesn’t ship their books internationally, and I’m in Canada, I’m looking for ebook versions where they exist.
The only Hougart ebook I can find is his 100 Collectible Native American Silversmiths: and their Hallmarks. It’s available via both the Hougart site and Amazon.
I tried downloading a free sample for Kindle, to get a sense of its contents. However, after the cover itself, every page of the sample is blank! I tried looking at the Read sample option on the page for the Kindle edition, and it’s the same story there.
So I’d like to ask you all:
Have you bought the ebook edition and if so, is there indeed content following a series of blank pages?
Does the print copy also start with a series of blank pages? (not critical, just curious)
And is it worth buying, given its focused scope on deceased silversmiths?
Hi @chamekke,
I have the book. It includes hallmarks and a somewhat limited biographies. I do like it as I’m interested in a lot of these artists, but it has very minimal information not available elsewhere. It’s just in a more concise form. I did find information I hadn’t heard or read elsewhere. For example information on the very early Mark Chee hallmark (M. CHEE - no bird). I have a cuff with this early hallmark
Specifically to your question, there are no blank pages.
Here’s an example (I asked my husband if I could borrow his finger to hold the book open…he asked if I wanted his middle finger ):
That helps a great deal, @Bmpdvm ! Thank you to both you and your kind husband!
Think I might just order the ebook from Amazon. That way, if there are any issues with it, at least I can “return” it on the spot. If I do, I will report back on the contents.
Margaret Nickelson Wright (both she and her husband Barton had first hand relationships with Native American artists starting in ~ 1960s) Hopi silver : the history and hallmarks of Hopi silversmithing (originally published in 1973, updated in 1999). This is FREE online to read.
Wikipedia link about Archive.org is the Library to the World
The Internet Archive is an American nonprofitdigital library website founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle.[1][2][4] It provides free access to collections of digitized materials including websites, software applications, music, audiovisual, and print materials. The Archive also advocates for a free and open Internet. As of September 5, 2024, the Internet Archive held more than 42.1 million print materials, 13 million videos, 1.2 million software programs, 14 million audio files, 5 million images, 272,660 concerts, and over 866 billion web pages in its Wayback Machine.[5] Its mission is committing to provide “universal access to all knowledge”.
Project Gutenberg Wikipedia link to Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to “encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks.”[2] It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital library.[3] Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of books or individual stories in the public domain. All files can be accessed for free under an open format layout, available on almost any computer. As of 13 February 2024, Project Gutenberg had reached 70,000 items in its collection of free eBooks.[4]
The releases are available in plain text as well as other formats, such as HTML, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, and Plucker wherever possible. Most releases are in the English language, but many non-English works are also available. There are multiple affiliated projects that provide additional content, including region- and language-specific works. Project Gutenberg is closely affiliated with Distributed Proofreaders, an Internet-based community for proofreading scanned texts.
Project Gutenberg is named after the inventor Johannes Gutenberg, whose works in developing printing technology led to an increase in the mass availability of books and other text.
Thank you for your questions. I will try to answer them.
I like to learn about Native American jewelry and the artists who create it. I mostly do this through reading and taking notes. Occasionally, if I cannot find something on a specific topic, I contact other people who have more expertise. I often find them very helpful.
From time-to-time, I’ll be reading a series of discussions on a common topic. For example, on Turquoise People, there are many different posts/threads that are asking for help about references on Native American hallmarks and lists of books on turquoise, artists, jewelry, etc. The people answering are very helpful to the questions asked, however, many of the answers are just a photo of a book, or page, name of the author or book (sometimes partial/abbreviated). This can lead a reader/receiver to have to do additional searching (e.g., Google) on their own in order to find the reference, or in some cases to purchasing it.
What I sometimes do is gather the information in an area of interest for both myself and others in a Group, try to organize it into a logical flow, and provide each item with a brief description. I’ll also link to the reference for each item so the reader can obtain further information if they are interested.
You are correct, I’ve only done one posting with questions about Native American jewelry, and posted a separate topic about Method to Determine Silver & Gold Content in Jewelry & Composition of Gems.
With respect to ProjectGutenberg.org and Archive.org, these are online FREE libraries to the world, which many people may not be familiar with. Both of them have a lot of valuable information on Native American jewelry and artists (as well as millions of books and videos on many other topics). In the note above, I put links to a number (but not all) of the Native American jewelry books that are available online. At the bottom of my note, I put a link to these two online libraries, as well as the Wikipedia link and summary paragraph description of what they are. [Sorry for the links within the Wikipedia paragraphs; I just did a cut-and-paste and didn’t remove those links.]
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