Diné (Navajo) Tufa Cast Belt Buckle [SOLD]

Tufa casting, often erroneously referred to as sand casting, is one of the earliest techniques used by the Navajo smiths. Today, it is still accomplished in the same manner as it was 150 years ago. This buckle was cast in silver, and then painstakingly polished and refined to a smooth finish.

Before a cast buckle such as this one can be made by an artisan, he or she must first fashion a mold from a whitish sandstone rock, hard enough to withstand the hot metal without splitting and yet soft enough to be grooved into the wanted design. Today, these can be purchased at local jewelry supply stores, but in earlier days, the artisan searched the Reservation for suitable rock and carved the desired design himself. When one of these molds broke, perhaps from not having been warm enough to receive the molten silver, it was a minor tragedy. Today, it is a slight inconvenience. Now, a new one can be purchased on the next trip into town.

This buckle is beautiful in its simplicity of three long triangular bars with round tips.  It is not signed with the name of an artisan and probably dates to the mid-20^th century or earlier.

Recommended Reading:  The Beauty of Navajo Jewelry by Theda Bassman.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: from the collection of a gentleman from Colorado