Does anyone know anything about Emer Thompson-bio. birth, started business, still working? dates on him? I have 45+ books on antique/vintage/iron / bronze age, stones, jewelers/ copyrights, birth date, and trademarks (makers marks). I can find 10 times as much about jewelry makers from those eras pretty easily but not about NA jewelry. In fact, even trying to contact websites about information seems to be without answers. I did recently order a book on southwestern jewelry marks and artists, so we’ll see if that helps. Even Bille Hougarts book on Mexican Jewelry has more info. I saw her one on Southwestern marks, but Amazon prices are way too high. I guess I’m spoiled by being able to meet and talk to authors of the antique vintage groups and the actual jewelers - like Ganokskin, along with hundreds of members of these national and international groups yearly in Providence, or SF, or Chicago. The lack of actual documentation makes the entire NA genre seem nebulous and subject to conjecture. There are a lot of people here that have great knowledge and that’s great, I just wish there was more definitive knowledge on some of these great artists. I love the research, but honestly, there is precious little to work with.
US
This is a topic that has been covered several times here. I searched all topics for “books” and got 5 hits. This one is pretty comprehensive.
Also, check out Thriftbooks.com where you can search for a book and set it to notify you when it becomes available.
I ordered Dexter Cirullos book. I’ve used Thriftbooks also. Thank you for the suggestions.
US
I’ve been thinking about this thread, and will try to put it into words.
I think for us to expect Natives to have a written documented history of their work through the decades the same as other cultures do, is to forget what all they have been through. Obviously there is info, but different cultures put different emphasis on what is important, so how much people of European background choose to record could be very different from other cultures. Also, if I remember from what I have read, Native jewelry in particular, evolved much later in history.
There was a thread that was very helpful on here that discussed why native jewelry doesn’t have hallmarks, but I can’t find it. But trying to just sent me down a rabbit hole of posts I’d never read, so that was fun!
I don’t feel like I’ve worded this right; my brain can’t figure out how to say what I’m thinking 
, so forgive me if I’ve stated anything badly.
Just real quick, I think what you’re talking about is not what’s important being the difference but how history is recorded and passed forward. There are oral history vs. written history societies. Native people have long had deep ways to keep history in an oral-history culture way, which means story, song, memory vs. the European gold standard of written history. Obviously, literacy (meaning in this situation English language usage) has long been forced on and enforced in Native communities, but the old patterns of oral transmission are still respectable for communicating history.
Concerning jewelry, I wrote a post somewhere about the lack of hallmarking in earlier times because of how people living in a folk culture thought about it.
Yes, that’s it. And pretty sure that’s the post I am remembering.
I think what I had a little bit of issue with was saying the entire native art genre seems nebulous. Traveling to the southwest and talking to people there who deal in native art would give insight, like the large conventions/gathering does for the other arts.
Thanks for putting into words what I was thinking @chicfarmer!
In Theory I agree with you, especially about how the people living in a folk culture thought about it. On the other hand, very early artisans are not noted, and the style and function and the way the jewelry was made is, often times, the only thing we can turn to, to attribute. At some point around the 19th century records were started to be kept about the newer (*early 20th century) artists based on forming and methods of their work had some help to give us a better idea of how to honor these artists, and it would be helpful if more information was forthcoming, if nothing else but to have more of an idea of when, where, how, why some of the extraordinary pieces were made, and who made them. I have books on the early women artisans of the 1600 who were silversmiths. True, the items they were noted by were flatware and pieces for the home and those wealthy enough to buy them, but I have a feeling that even the early Mexican. Peruvian, and Spanish artists seemed to get more attention to attribution which, in my humble opinion , is fascinating from an historical perspective.
You aren’t talking about Native Americans, though, which is the context here.
Attribution depends on seeing people as professionals or as individual creative artists per se, versus considering them members of a community making functional things for their own use (“the Hopi,” etc). This was basically not the story for outsiders’ interactions with SW Native Americans until the rise of Euro-Native market forces, let’s say the last decades of the nineteenth century. How Native people themselves thought about the work of an individual, what they might be willing to disclose to the random Smithsonian ethnologist who showed up in the Pueblo, and the training in cultural anthropology in earlier eras–all of this fed into what isn’t on record.
Precisely. I merely was using the early women silversmiths as an example. I would imagine the perception of the NA artists very well had that feeling about disclosing to a random ‘stranger’ even if their intent was honorable. My very point, I feel, is that it is too bad, for what ever reason the NA believed, it was closely held about dates and attributions, more so than the Central and South American artists. Some transparency for history sake doesn’t always foretell of being a bad thing.
I absolutely love the way you explained this. Thank you.
Thank you for the lovely compliment on my post. I guess it was for me. haha
DHT
I think both you and Chicfarmer get to the heart of the matter beautifully expressing the information you share. . We at the forum are so blessed to have knowledgeable people who see with their hearts through their eyes and speak with their hearts through their tongues.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!