Fred Harvey Era Native American Sterling/Hubbel glass Heavy stamped cuff

Details

Description

Fred Harvey Era Native American Sterling/Hubbel glass Heavy stamped cuff. Nice large cuff 42.8 grams, marked and tested sterling with … Read more Fred Harvey Era Native American Sterling/Hubbel glass Heavy stamped cuff. Nice large cuff 42.8 grams, marked and tested sterling with no other markings. 6.5" including the 1.25" gap 1.5" wide in center.

Hubbell beads were glass beads imported from Italy, Bohemia and later Czechoslovakia. Though there is not significant evidence the practice was be by Lorenzo Hubbell, owner of Hubbell Trading Post, the beads have become associated with his name. They were purchased as a less expensive way of producing jewelry. Since the traders often supplied the Native artists with the materials for jewelry sold at the trading posts, the traders looked for ways to lower the costs of producing enough jewelry to meet the market demand. They found one way through the cottage crafters in areas such as Czechoslovakia.

By the turn of the twentieth century, Czech bead makers were exporting large quantities of glass beads to a worldwide market. They came in a wide array of shapes, sizes and colors. Ones imported to the Southwest were shaped and colored to resemble the turquoise and coral used in Native American jewelry. While their use may have been only a substitute for the real gems that make up true handmade jewelry from the Southwest, their import helped families in areas such as Bohemia make a living during the tumultuous times in Europe. See less