This lovely sterling silver bracelet has a beautiful vine design w/double curve motif worked into the vines - the vines are bordered, top and bottom, with a rocker engraved serrate line - by Kenneth Hamilton, well known trade silver reproduction artist. Here Ken has modernized his usual version of the trade silver era wrist band, making this a bracelet. This one is of thicker heavier silver then Ken usually uses (and thicker than was used in original 200 year old trade silver items) He has marked it .6oz - again it is heavier than some of his other bracelets SO - you can carefully bend it to fit your wrist. I think these bracelets will work better for those who love the old style design -but want a more modern piece of jewelry. The bracelet (without holes at the ends to incorporate a wrist tie) was a trade silver era item.
This is about .75" high, 5" long with a 2.25" opening.
Kenneth also makes "wrist bands" which are authentic replicas of early trade silver styles... THIS is a BRACELET (wrist bands have leather or silk ties attached to holes on band's ends and then tie onto the wrist - see some of these in this ebay store) The vine design seen here was frequently used on trade silver bracelets. Ken uses period techniques for his designs - here you see rocker
engraving forming the design. Some of Ken's other work
incorporates incising and stamping in it's design as well - all three are trade silver era period techniques. Ken has stamped this one with his maker's mark "KH" on the outer ends... making the stamp look somewhat like a flower attached to the vine.
In almost every early photo or portrait of NE Native Americans you see them wearing "trade silver" items. WHAT
IS Trade silver?? - When early white traders made contact with Native
American peoples, they needed items to trade with the Native Americans
in exchange for furs. These items had to be something Native Americans
valued, yet could not make themselves. The items needed to be small and
portable to carry long distances to sites to trade. Glass beads and
silver jewelry were two items that filled this need perfectly. The
first silver items were made in Europe, but soon English and French
silversmiths living in the "new world" made most of the silver items for
trade w/ Native Americans and then for treaty obligations.
This style wrist band/bracelet could have been traded or given to
tribes such Iroquois, MicMac, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and
all other NE Indian tribes - I am offering several of Kenneth
Hamilton's reproduction trade items. This will fit many people as it can be
squeezed or pulled a bit to make it somewhat larger or smaller. BUT do
not repeatedly bend this bracelet - as silver will only bend so many
times and then it will break. Get it to a comfortable size for you to
take on and off.. and then put it on and remove it by turning the
opening to the side of your wrist (it is narrower there) And THEN
turning it to face & cover the top of your wrist. I have a fairly
small woman's size wrist. I grabbed one of these bracelets for myself,
taking what appeared to be a much too large bracelet - putting it on
then gently squeezing and somewhat shaping it to the form of my wrist.
Fits great! (Looks great too!) - Very comfortable to wear, I forget to
take it off for 3 or 4 days at a time... I
apologize for my photography. This is clean bright shiny silver and my
pictures pick up reflections in it. SO any flaws you see - are not
really there! I have a number of great sterling silver pieces by Ken Hamilton well known artist of
reproduction trade items -1700-mid 1800. Ken is of Lakota heritage and
an adopted Ottawa. Ken Hamilton researches his trade silver designs, spending time pouring over books, pictures and visiting museum collections. I know that museum directors and collections managers in every Maine museum are familiar with Ken and his work. It is well researched. Since his mother is the leading authority on trade silver - Ken knows his stuff. In photo following, Ken appears as an Ottawa warrior, circa 1777, in full regalia (holding
one of his tomahawks) on the front cover of his mother’s 1995 book:
“Silver in the Fur Trade 1680-1820” by Martha Wilson Hamilton. This book is available in this ebay store. Check out the description - it is a great book for those interested in this historic era as well as anyone curious about early Native trade patterns etc ... Like many early French or English craftsmen, Ken is of some Native American heritage and is married to a Penobscot woman, Nikki Johnson. He writes of trade silver "....trade silver commercial forms really begin in the 1740's as simple ring brooches, arm and wrist bands, round and crescent gorgets, and ear bobs. After French Canada was surrendered to the English in 1760, new forms of silver ornaments appear quickly. Larger flat/pierced brooches, and ear wheels and more familiar ear rings. ..... by 1815 massive volumes were being traded to NE Indians and eventually became "treaty" or "annuity" gifts of the US and Canadian (England) governments." (You will get a photocopy of the entirety of his writing on this subject) -
Each piece is individual, handmade and based on real historical items, whether an actual reproduction of such or a design made by incorporating designs from several pieces to make a variation piece. Each piece has Ken's initials "K H" stamped into the front of the piece so that there will never be any chance it can be passed off as an antique original.