Mark Chee Navajo Vintage Cuff W/Beautiful Spiderweb Turquoise Heavy 115 Grams.

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Mark Chee Navajo Vintage Cuff W/Beautiful Spiderweb Turquoise Heavy 115 Grams.:
$5200.00

Navajo silversmith, Mark Chee (1914-1981), was well known for using heavy silver, beautiful turquoise and adorning them with traditional stampwork. Using only a saw, torch, mallet, and stamp he would create, manipulate and mold his pieces. His hallmark of a bird with his name in the body is stamped in his jewelry.

Born in a sheep camp on a Navajo reservation in the Four Corners area near Lukachukai, Arizona, Chee moved to Santa Fe after attending Fort Defiance boarding school from the age of 10 to the 11th grade. Chee quickly progressed from polishing silver for $5 a week at Julius Gans’ shop in Santa Fe, to becoming a benchsmith for Frank Patania’s Thunderbird Shop and Al Packard’s Shop in Santa Fe.

Between 1930-1960, Chee sharpened his craft and quickly became an accomplished silversmith specializing in old style designs with heavy silver. In 1946, he won first prize at the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial in Gallup, NM. His influence can be seen today in jewelry by contemporary artists like Mike Bird-Romero (Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo). In 2002, Chee’s jewelry was shown in the “Jewels of the Southwest” exhibition. Please let me know if you need more photos or any other information about this piece of art. Thanks