Hallmarks of the Southwest by Barton Wright (2000, Hardcover, Revised)

This is an excellent reference book for those buying, selling or collecting Southwest Indian jewelry. I buy and sell Native American jewelry and this book has been an invaluable resource in my business. It is particularly helpful when researching older Native American jewelry. It lists the artists name, tribal affiliation, and additional information about the artist, such as how long they have been producing jewelry, their relatives, the region from which they are from, etc. It's organized alphabetically, but the indexes are the truly valuable part, because you can look up an artist by the initials and/or symbols found on a piece of jewelry (i.e. animals, clouds, sun, plants, mountains, arrows, etc). It also identifies shop marks, and has sections for fetish carvers, pottery makers, and rug & basket makers. Often when I find a piece of vintage indian jewelry, I am able to determine the artist who created it with the help of this book. I highly recommend this book to all Native American jewelry lovers! If you can only buy one Native American jewelry resource book, this is the one I would recommend first. It's kind of expensive but well worth it!

This is an excellent and comprehensive reference book for the Native American jewelry collector. It is extremely well done.

I purchased this book to learn more about Native American artists. It is oftentimes referred to by dealers who sell signed pieces of Southwestern Jewelry. The book includes bio's of artists, representations of artists' hallmarks, and indexes that categorize Hallmarks by symbols, initials, and shops. The book also has information on Fetish Carvers and Heishi Makers, Pottery, Rugs and Baskets. A great reference book!!

eXCELLENT INFO that all should have to help identify signed items.
One can learn alot from researchers hard work.
Easy to understand, clear & concise.

Very informative with a lot of information broken down in several categories. Easy to find specific individuals by abbreviations, symbols etc. Probably the most used reference book by dealers and collectors. The only suggestion would be to use more photographs.

I bought this book because I have several southwestern U.S. articles that either were not marked or the marks were unknown to me. I also have been in the right place at the right time, for acquiring southwest articles, and for my own edification (and for the edification of anyone who admired or wanted to buy them from me) it is nice to know who made (or whose style of work was similar) a particlar piece. Several internet sites recommended this book, so I thought I would get a coopy of it. I believe that somewhere in the title, the author should let the reader/researcher know that the book deals primarily with jewelry of the southwest. Although there are small sections on pottery, fetish carvers and heishi makers, and rugs and baskets, the bulk of the information is about silversmiths and lapidary(stone working) arts. And although this book would be an invaluables tool for the dealer in southwest jewelry, I think it may be a little overpriced, and there isn't enough new information in new publishings of the book to justify the increased costs. I recommend that anyone wanting this book, should buy it on E-bay for a more reasonable price than what the bookstores want for it. This would be a good reference for anyone interested in the marks of the southwest silversmiths.