Dig It - 10/20/25

Hello Fellow Seekers, Pretty fancy pair of earrings, would you not say? These are what I would call “bench work,” meaning they were made by Native Americans, probably Navajo or Pueblo, working for one of the more commercial traders selling to a white audience. Now that is not to say that this style of earring was not worn by Native Americans, because it was. Over the years, I’ve seen a number of single earrings of this type come out of the Pueblos, the mate having been lost. If you look at some of the early catalogs produced for mail-order consumers dating from 1900 to the 1930s, you will see earrings like these advertised. Most American women in the early 20th century did not have their ears pierced, though in this case I believe the posts are original. I love the way the silversmith has “bookended” the matrix in the two lower trapezoid-shaped turquoise stones. This is a fabulous pair of earrings, and they are for sale. Lonesome