{"title":"Native American \u0026 Taxco Jewelry","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwo silver traditions sit side by side in this collection, and they belong together. Both grew out of the same ground — the silver country of the American Southwest and Mexico — and both were made by hand, at the bench, by smiths whose names and marks collectors still read like signatures. On one side, the jewelry of the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and Santo Domingo makers; on the other, the sterling of Taxco, the Mexican silver town whose workshops set the standard for hand-wrought silver in the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNative American silver begins with the Navajo smiths of the 1860s and 1870s, who learned metalwork and turned it into something entirely their own: heavy ingot silver hammered and filed by hand, then stamped, chased, and sandcast into bracelets, concho belts, ketoh bow guards, and the squash blossom necklaces that remain the emblem of the craft. The Zuni brought stone to the front — turquoise, coral, jet, and shell set in fine needlepoint, petit point, and channel inlay — while Hopi smiths developed the overlay, two layers of silver pierced and joined so the design reads in shadow. Turquoise is the stone the whole tradition turns on, and the mines have names of their own: Sleeping Beauty, Kingman, Morenci, Lone Mountain. Turn a genuine piece over and the back tells you as much as the front: a sterling mark, an artist's hallmark where one was used, the honest weight of silver that was worked, not cast thin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTaxco is a steep silver-mining town in Guerrero, and in 1931 William Spratling opened the workshop that revived it. Within a generation the town held hundreds of talleres, and its best makers — Margot de Taxco, Los Castillo, Antonio Pineda, Héctor Aguilar among them — were producing silver that was sold in fine shops across Mexico and the United States and is collected today by the standard it was made to. Mexican silver is marked by law and by pride: the eagle guarantee marks of the mid century, the fineness stamped plainly at .925 and often .980, HECHO EN MEXICO, and the maker's own mark beside them. The work is heavy-gauge, hand-finished, and meant to be worn for a lifetime.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhat do the marks on a Taxco or Native American piece tell you?\u003c\/strong\u003e More than any other single thing. The Mexican eagle numbers, the fineness stamp, and a maker's mark place a Taxco piece in its period and often at one identified bench; a Navajo or Zuni hallmark does the same for Southwestern work, and where a piece is unsigned — as much early Native work is — the construction, the stone, and the hand of the work carry the attribution. We read the marks on every piece that comes to us and state them plainly in its listing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHow should vintage silver be cared for?\u003c\/strong\u003e Wear it, wipe it with a soft cloth, and store it dry. A polishing cloth restores brightness without chemicals. Leave the dark shading in the deep stampwork and the recesses of the design where the maker put it — on this silver, the contrast between bright surface and shadowed ground is not tarnish to be removed; it is the finish the piece was made with.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"sterling-silver-graduated-bead-necklace-22-inch-117-grams-stamped-925-box-clasp","title":"Sterling Silver Graduated Bead Necklace – Mexico, 22 Inch | Stamped 925, Box Clasp","description":"\u003cp\u003eA bold, substantial Mexican sterling silver graduated bead necklace — circa 1960s, Taxco — with 117 grams of solid silver presence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCirca 1960s, made in Taxco, Mexico\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e22 inches long\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e117 grams total weight\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eGraduated round beads, largest at the front tapering to smaller beads at the back\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eSecure box clasp with button tongue\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eStamped TH-58 and 925 on the clasp\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBeautiful oxidized antique patina\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eFree worldwide shipping.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Royal Regency Antique Jewelry","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":71483809825021,"sku":"SBN-22","price":549.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0835\/5820\/3645\/files\/media-generation-bead-necklace-editorial-hero-0-0785effb-34f4-48d3-b362-ea80d45053d9.webp?v=1791389068"},{"product_id":"emer-thompson-navajo-sterling-silver-turquoise-coral-butterfly-pendant-signed","title":"Emer Thompson Navajo Sterling Silver Turquoise Coral Butterfly Pendant Signed","description":"\u003cp\u003eLarge butterfly pendant by Navajo silversmith Emer Thompson, signed \"Emer Thompson\" with a STERLING stamp on the back. Six turquoise cabochons with two small coral cabochons, twisted-wire and silver bead details, stamped feather bail. Pendant only.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Royal Regency Antique Jewelry","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":71642036011261,"sku":null,"price":400.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0835\/5820\/3645\/files\/candidate-06-butterfly-editorial-v1.webp?v=1792539700"}],"url":"https:\/\/royalregencyjewelry.com\/collections\/native-american-taxco-jewelry.oembed","provider":"Royal Regency Antique Jewelry","version":"1.0","type":"link"}