Mold For Silver Buckle
date: label: Accession Date
content: 27 Jan 1905
name: label: Collector
content: Mrs Matilda C. Stevenson
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "In two parts of an iron frame, (flask) fitting together and filled with earth as in ordinary casting. "hepikwin an ope - silver medallion, mold, the earth of this mold is removed/mixed with water and returned to the frame when a new design is desired (old)" Illus. Hndbk of N. Amer. Indians, Vol. 9, Southwest, fig. 7, pg. 496." Identified in Handbook caption as "Negative mold of sand (with an iron frame) for casting a silver buckle, probably part of a set of silver-making tools purchased by Matilda C. Stevenson in 1902 from Lanyade [a.k.a. La:niyahdi], the first Zuni to learn silversmithing (Adair 1944:122, 126). As described by Lanyade, sand made from soft rock was placed in a shallow wooden or metal box, sugar water was poured over it, and a piece of silver (in this case a belt buckle of the desired shape) was pressed into the sand to produce a negative mold; a groove leading to the depressed section (into which the silver could later be poured) was also made (Adair 1944:149-150)." Full citation for Adair book: Adair, John. 1944. The Navajo and Pueblo silversmiths. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
label: Notes
content: Object is illustrated Fig. 85, p. 59 in Ostler, James, Marian Rodee, and Milford Nahohai. 1996. Zuni: a village of silversmiths. [Albuquerque, NM?]: Zuni A:shiwi Pub. . It is identified there as La:niyahdi's mold for concha.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Zuni, Zuni Reservation / Mckinley County, New Mexico, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Zuni (A:shiwi)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 043829
label: USNM Number
content: E234675-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Mold