Hmmmm…I think I’d stay away from soap and water. Would a silver polishing cloth work? If it’s too dirty for that I’m thinking some experts on this will weigh in.
No moisture. Use a special polishing cloth.
To confuse you even more, I think it looks great as is. 
It doesn’t show very well in the picture, but it is very dirty. Looks like it has some old soda spilled on it that someone didn’t clean off. Not sure the polishing cloth will clean that, but I will give it a try. Thanks!
I think you could safely clean the silver back with soap and water if it’s sticky and crudy. You just need to be careful because water on that chip inlay could be disastrous.
Thanks so much…glad I didn’t go ahead and do it before I asked. Guess it shows that I am finally learning! LOL
I’m wondering what makes you believe this is by Anthony Lovato? I have never known him to work in chip inlay; he is most famous for his tufa cast designs. Chip inlay is also not typical for Santo Domingo/Kewa. I looked up a few ALs in Hougart’s and the best I could come up with was Austin Lewis, Navajo, active since 1970’s. It doesn’t give any info on the style he worked in and I am not familiar with him, but he says he signed AL conjoined and chip inlay is most often Navajo (or Mexican) and was also very popular in the 70’s. So maybe that’s a possibility?
I concur with everyone else who recommended not to get the chip inlay wet.
I looked up the mark in the Amerindan site and it gave this mark as belonging to Anthony Lovato. I looked up his bio and it said he learned Silversmithing from his Mother who did shell inlay, and from his Grandfather who specialized in casting and inlay. I agree that I haven’t found anything that he has done that looks similar to this, but assumed ( wrongly perhaps) that he would have learned from his Grandfather and Mother. I will have to do more research. Thanks for the information.
