Vintage Signed Boyd Tsosie Sterling Silver with Turcuoise Ring. Sz 7 3/4 For Sale

Vintage Signed Boyd Tsosie Sterling Silver with Turcuoise Ring. Sz 7 3/4

3/4” Tall

Boyd Tsosie is a famousNavajo jeweler, born in 1954. He has been making jewelry since he was sixteen years of age. In 1979, Boyd Tsosie was only 23. He was already among the top echelon of Southwestern jewelers / silversmiths (both past and present).

He and his brother Richard sosie were 2 of the new wave of American Indian artists featured in the 1979 Arizona Highways Jewelry Collectors edition along with Jesse Monongye, Gibson Nez, James Little and Larry Golsch. These Navajo silversmiths all would go on to build fine reputations and set the standards you see today for Southwest jewelry.

Kenneth Begaye, a teacher at the Navajo Community College on the Navajo Reservation, inspired Boyd at a young age.

Boyd gives credit to Kenneth for teaching him his trade. Kenneth Begay has been deemed the father of modern Navajo jewelry.

Boyd Tsosie is featured in Navajo Indian Jewelry and Enduring Traditions by Jerry and Lois Jacka and North American Indian Jewelry and Adornment by Lois Dubin. His jewelry has been on display at many Southwestern Exhibits.

Throughout the 40 years that I have been in business, I have purchased jewelry from pawn shops throughout the Southwest that had collections of dead pawn. Most of these pawn shops and trading posts are now closed. The Native American would pawn his jewelry for immediate cash. The shop would hold it and charge interest until he could reclaim it. Dead pawn are the pieces that were never retrieved. Old Pawn Jewelry typically dates from the early 1900s to the 1970s. Most of the early pieces are not signed because it wasn't the Native American tradition to sign the pieces they crafted. Also, the turquoise in old pawn is turquoise that you can't get anymore because many of the mines have closed. And, the red and orange coral is rare because of the coral bleaching which is happening today.