Southwest Indian Jewelry Silverware - Flatware Diné of the Navajo Nation

Silver Baby Spoon Featuring Santa Fe on Handle [SOLD]

Category: Silverware - Flatware
Origin: Diné of the Navajo Nation
Medium: silver, turquoise
Size: 3-¾” long
Item # 26335

SOLD

This sterling silver baby spoon is identified as a product of the Julius Gans Arts & Crafts Store in Santa Fe, having been made in the 1930s. It is stamped with the unique UITA21 number and arrowhead mark on the back of the handle. It is stamped Santa Fe on the front of the stem. A small turquoise cabochon rests at the end of the handle.

This sterling silver baby spoon is identified as a product of the Julius Gans Arts & Crafts Store in Santa Fe, having been made in the 1930s. It is stamped with the unique UITA21 number and arrowhead mark on the back of the handle. The United Indian Traders Association (UITA) was established officially on September 13, 1931, for the purpose of authentication of Indian crafts. The organization was incorporated as a non-profit in New Mexico with the support of a number of traders, and that of Harold Ickes, later to become Secretary of the Interior, and San Francisco attorney Charles Elkus.

The UITA strongly supported the Federal Trade Commission's prosecution of companies for using false advertising and for other misleading practices. In 1946, there were 40 members using the UITA stamp. Each member was assigned a number. UITA21 was assigned to Southwest Arts & Crafts, which was the company of Julius Gans of Santa Fe. This is a true Santa Fe souvenir.

Julius Gans opened his Southwest Arts & Crafts Shop on San Francisco Street in Santa Fe in 1918. By 1927, Gans was producing silver works using Pueblo & Navajo silversmiths to do the work. "The silversmithing shop, on the first floor of the expanded operation, had two rows of benches with twenty-four positions. Each silversmith owned his own tools, though Gans ordered them through the shop. A smith bought them at cost and marked his initials on them with a file. The inside of each scrap drawer had a bar on which to hang tools. . . . Most of the Southwest Arts & Crafts' silversmiths were Pueblo Indians, but some were Navajo." [Batkin, 2008:148-166]

Condition: very good condition

Provenance: this Silver Baby Spoon Featuring Santa Fe on Handle is from the collection of a family from Santa Fe

Reference: Batkin, Jonathan. The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico, 2008.

TAGS: Southwest Indian Jewelry, Navajo

Unidentified Artist