Perry Shorty Coin Silver Cuff With Repousse

You can't really overemphasize the significance of Navajo jeweler Perry Shorty. While there are other jewelers working in a revival style, few are Perry's equal. His jewelry takes us all the way back to the classic Navajo and Pueblo pieces of the late 19th and early 20th Century. 

Perry Shorty is renowned for his coin silver jewelry, like this bracelet. It's an old and laborious technique in which silver coins are actually melted down to be formed into jewelry. 

One time, for a group of collectors, we'd provided Perry with a thick plastic table on which to demonstrate the coin melting process. Big mistake! In the midst of Perry melting the coins, we all began to smell the overpowering stench of toxic plastic. The process required such intense heat that a section of the plastic table had melted. Perry Shorty, still calm and composed, laughed at the room full of 25 collectors gasping, coughing and running outside to breathe fresh air. The incident only emphasized it takes an expert to work with coin silver. 

This fantastic coin silver bracelet was made by the same process minus the doomed plastic table. It's simple and elegant yet deceptively complex in the technique and precision it required. Notice the cracks in each little repousse segment. They're like handprints because every single piece that Perry makes is one of a kind. Every tiny stamp, every repousse section, every bit of file work is meticulously crafted by hand. 

For those of you with a library of books on Native silver, get out your Paula Baxter book entitled Southwest Silver Jewelry. On page 28, you'll find the 1890's inspiration piece for this bracelet of Perry's. 

This is a piece of Navajo jewelry you'll cherish as long as you live! It goes with everything and feels exceptional on.

Perry Shorty's coin silver repousse bracelet measures 5 1/2" inside plus a gap of 1" for a total of 6 1/2". The width is a hair under 1". It's signed on the reverse "Perry Shorty" and "Coin Silver." This one is a rare earlier piece of Perry's and originally collected circa 2000. It's lived with a single owner since that time.