I hope I have found something unusual in this little old ring that I found online.
It was represented as a Northwestern Native American-made ring that’s pre-1900’s in age. The ring itself is sterling and handmade, and the stone is gold bearing quartz, which is something I’ve never seen before but a little reading tells me that it’s something of a rarity and found in underground hard rock mines where gold nuggets are found. The seller said that he bought it many years ago in Alaska from a Northwestern Native American art collection.
The back of the ring has two sets of initials carved into it. The work on the ring is a very simple style, and handmade as you can see some stray tool marks around the bezel, and the initials are marked with a rough tool. The decorative stamping and crimping are a bit uneven, lending support to the idea of it being handmade.
Do you think this piece is Native American and that old? I know that Native American jewelry of that age is hard to come by but it does seem to fit the style and simpler methods of an older piece. I’m curious about the two sets of initials on the back, but I’m guessing that since they’re upside down from each other instead of carved facing the same direction, that they were probably put on after the ring was put together and could mean anything.
Looks like cowboy work. The patterns were cut with a graver rather than stamped. A “wriggle tool”, a long flat graver pushed into the metal and wriggled side to side was used to cut the lettering in the back and around the bezel, and most likely to carve the simple designs into the shank.
No way to tell if it’s Native or non-Native made . Pre-1900 sounds like real stretch. If I had to guess, I’d say a cowboy silversmith smithed it up as a gift for his girlfriend and carved their initials in the back for her.
Thank you, @mmrogers ! I had to look up the definition of a graver, but yes, that is exactly what the work and lettering looks like it was done with. And it being so rudimentary, it surely wasn’t made by a professional.
I considered that also, that maybe the ring was a couple’s gift and it was their initials carved in the back. Or maybe one set of initials found the stone and the other set it or something like that.
Aw, that makes it a sweet little ring, then. Some young guy trying to strike it rich looking for gold found this little bit (it’s not exactly what I would call a rich vein!) and gave his hard-won treasure to his sweetheart.
the carving on the shank looks somewhat reminiscent of some early pacific northwest silver work, but IDK. you could try the SE AK Native Silversmiths Attribution Group on facebook, just to see if the initials or stone look familiar to anyone. i have a very very small crystal of gold-bearing quartz i received as a gift from an old miner friend - it’s cool stuff.
To me it looks Victorian-Edwardian, which had a vogue for agates and similar stones set in silver. The stone is very interesting! The shallow decorative engraving on the shank and the stipple engraving on the back also are typical of the era.
I think it has nothing to do with Native artistry. Stuff winds up basically everywhere and anywhere.
Here’s a demonstration video of wriggle engraving, and a little bit of simple cowboy ‘bright cut’. It really helps to understand how something is done when assessing the techniques used to create it and the origin of a piece. Wriggle is a technique typically used in traditional Cowboy, and Mexican (Cowboy) engraving. Looking at the depth of the engraving, It’s likely only hand power was used on your ring, and the silversmith went deep to get the desired effect.
As you’ll pick up from the video, the silversmith/engraver experimented with speed and depth when creating the ‘wriggle’ border around the bezel, so this was likely something he or she may have experimented with a bit in creating this ring. It looks like a well executed early effort.
One thing I’m sure of it the ring was made with real love and care, and that there’s a story behind it which goes far and deep. A true love story.
It occurs to me as I write this that some of the members of this forum may want to look into learning hand engraving, and creating their own artistic legacies.
I personally learned engraving at GRS, and sent my master silversmiths to learn there as well. It was money and time well spent!
Here’s another one… This isn’t traditional Cowboy bright cut as it incorporates single point techinques, but it’s a great video!
Amazing, thanks for sharing. So much work. It was interesting in the second video when he said don’t want to do so much work that you have to price it out of selling range.
So @mmrogers , I’m wondering if you have any idea of an answer to a question in another post about hollow form technique. Jason wondered when Natives started using that in their work (he said it helps in dating a piece). I couldn’t find anything, but I don’t have a lot of resources; I just googled.
I don’t remember seeing Native American hollow form Jewelry until the early 70’s in Gallup. But I was a very young silversmith, and not a jewelry historian so I don’t know when it actually turned up in the historical record.
My first recollections of hollow form are hand repousse Thai pieces my mother picked up in the Far East just post WWII.
With regard to the Indian Jewelry biz in the early 70’s, at that time, anything one could produce that was appealing would be snapped up in literal seconds, and if it was novel, was sold out months in advance. My recollection is, that is when hollowware really took off, I can think of several shops that were producing it. Notably one in a strip center on 3rd street (?) (I don’t remember the name), but they specialized in inlaid hollow ware bracelets, and if you wanted one, or a batch you waited months for delivery.
This BTW was the true power of the US market. What we bought here, we made here. A vibrant, dynamic national industry grew up around “Indian Jewelry”, Turquoise was the currency of high fashion, silversmiths and artists were rock stars, and everyone made money, everyone. It was pretty damned glorious for all!
@chicfarmer yes…several things look that age. I’ve seen enough other jewelry and writing from that era that I think it could be similarly aged. It’s certainly a unique, even if not especially valuable, stone, and the gold in it does shine!
@mmrogers thank you for the videos. I see why you are suggesting wriggle engraving, and it does support the simplicity of this piece. Someone did work hard on this piece, and it makes me a little sad that it ended up at auction without someone to appreciate it. Whatever it is, I`ll love it!
No need to be sad, Christina. Maybe It isn’t exactly the story you were told, but it’s a truly fine hand made piece with what I believe is a real love story behind it. I’m not a Jewelry picker, but if I were, I’d listen to an old silversmith like me, and I’d cherish this ring. Someone did at some point. It’s a love story.
@JW it does mix well with other stuff. Something different to throw in with the turquoise. Wore it today with mom’s diamond ring and those two also complimented each other nicely.
Whatever it is, I`ll love it!