I am a student at Oklahoma State University studying Fine Art, specifically Jewelry. I’m currently interning at Philbrook Museum of Art for my final semester. In the short time I have spent at Philbrook, I’ve been able to see so many different things. I’ve spent time in several different storage rooms full of all different kinds of art. I was even able to take a sneak peak at the famous rhino horn cups before they were on display. I have also been able to take early tours the Robert Rauschenberg show and most recently "Magnificent Vision."
Most of my time here at Philbrook has been spent working in inventory, learning how to process and photograph works of art. It’s almost unreal how many pieces of work are in storage. There are several large rooms full of incredible art that most people will never get to see. Not that this is anything out of the ordinary. Most museums only display a small percentage of their overall collection. Philbrook holds steady at around 7%. Lately in inventory we’ve been going through Native American objects. Working with these pieces I have been able to see beautiful bags full of beadwork, awesome moccasins and most recently my favorite, jewelry!
There are several pieces of Native American jewelry for which the artist is unknown. Most Native American artists stamp their jewelry with their own signature. In the past week I have been finding these pieces and looking for any sort of signature or identifying stamp. After finding a stamp, if I’m lucky, I then use a few different books (checked out from Philbrook’s convenient library) to help me find these Native American artists and figure out the “who” piece of the puzzle. This piece (seen below) for example is made of silver and turquoise.
The artist was unknown, but I found a stamp on the back of it, which looks like this…
After finding the “hallmark” I then looked through the invaluable book Hallmarks of the Southwest written by Barton Wright. I quickly found the stamp in the book and discovered that the artist is Mitchell Calabaza. Calabaza is of the Santo Domingo or Picuris nationality. The book also states that he first started using this stamp in 1977.
This is just one example of what I have been working on lately. Finding these artists is actually kind of rewarding. It feels like uncovering a little piece of history.
