Native American Silver at the Denver Art Museum + Art Nouveau Silver at The Museum's Kirkland Fine & Decorative Arts Building

Silver at the Denver Art Museum + The Kirkland Fine & Decorative Arts Zuni artist Necklace Silver and Turquoise Circa 1910

Denver Art Museum - We visited the Denver Art Musuem in June of 2025 which also included a stop a the museum's Kirkland Fine & Decorative Arts Building. As for traditional antique collectible silverware and hollowware pieces made by Tiffany, Gorham and other famous U.S. makers, there was none to be seen. However, the museum did have 2 distinct silver collections that we'd like to mention. The first was in their main building and housed a very nice collection of Native American Jewelry. The second silver collection was at their Kirkland Fine & Decorative Art building which featured some unusual eclectic art nouveau silver and silver plated hollowware pieces.

Native American Silver Art:

While ceramic arts are quite old, silver work in the Southwest region is a modern development. Southwest Indigenous people probably learned silversmithing around the mid 1800s from Mexican smiths, who learned it from the Spanish. They may have also seen the silver objects worn by the Ute, Kiowa, and Comanche peoples who learned silversmithing from the Delaware and Shawnee (both Lenape) peoples forcibly removed from the East Coast to what is now Oklahoma. By the late-1800s, silversmiths integrated turquoise stones and invented wholly new styles, including the squash blossom necklace, whose elongated beads resemble squash blossoms. The naja (pronounced na-ha), or cast crescent, might have roots in North Africa through

Moorish Spain and Spanish conquistadors.

Isleta artist Necklace Sterling silver 1880's

Diné (Navajo) artist Squash Blossom Necklace Late 1800s-early 1900s Turquoise and Silver

Lorraine Waatsa Zuni Bracelet

Lorraine Waatsa

The Zuni began to work with silver around the 1870s, learning from the Navajo, who learned from Mexican smiths.

Master craftswoman Lorraine Waatsa carries on her long family tradition of Zuni jewelry-making, seen here in her cluster turquoise work (an Indigenous innovation) with

silver drops and twisted silver wire.

Fashion Forward

Artists in the Southwest have used shells and stones in jewelry for thousands of years but over time adapted their art to include a variety of materials. The use of silver became popular in the mid-1800s. Native jewelers later expanded their materials to include coral, pearls, and gold. Today, jewelry is the single most collected art form created by Indigenous artists in North America.

Dwayne, Anthony, and Ron Upshaw Navajo - active late 1900s New Mexico Necklace Late 1900s Shell, turquoise, and coral

Attributed to a Zuni artist Necklace about 1970

Attributed to a Zuni artist

Necklace

About 1970

Lapidary work with silver, turquoise, tortoiseshell, abalone, coral, and mother-of-pearl

Gift of Warren D. Jamieson and Pearl W. Jamieson, 2007.4159

Native American Jewelry at Denver Art Museum

Native American Jewelry at Denver Art Museum

Robert Henri American, 1865-1929 Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita)

Robert Henri

American, 1865-1929

Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita)

1914

Oil paint on canvas

William Sr. and Dorothy Harmsen Collection at the Denver Art Museum, 2001.461

After growing up in Cozad, Nebraska, and Denver, Robert Henri eventually moved to New York City where he became a painter and arts educator. In 1913, he traveled to southern California where he met the Tewa artist Tom Po Qui who was visiting from P'ohwhoge Owingeh (San I|defonso Pueblo).

With quick, gestural brushstrokes, Henri depicts her colorful clothing, forthright gaze, and glints of light on her silver squash blossom necklace.

Denver Art Museum

The Kirkland Fine & Decorative Arts Building at The Denver Art Museum

The Denver Art Museum - The second silver collection we looked at was at the museum's:

Kirkland Fine & Decorative Art building features some unusual eclectic art nouveau silver and silver plated hollowware pieces. There weren't really any magnificent museum treasures in silver and much of it was just silver plated. However, there were many many more modestly valued items that were just really cool and unsual. Instead of listing all the highlights, we are choosing to just do one large photo dump of some of the gallery's most interesting pieces and displays. The museum also had some really good easy to ready information labels, look for these adjacent or included in the photos shown. Here you go:

Conclusion: Although the Denver Art Museum doens't have a super sustantial amount of important and magnificent pieces of collectible antique silver, it is still well worth a visit to see their beautiful collection. The Kirkland Fine & Decorative Arts building is definitely a must see for any collector of unusual art nouveau silver and silver plated wares.

Please Sell Your Museum Quality Silver to The Silver Museum

We want to purchase all your antique sterling silver especially any pieces that have elaborate decorative work or that have any unusual themes. We love buying entire collections.

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We also buy common grade and scrap quality silver as well.

If you have items that you'd like to sell,

or even just want to get an idea on valuation

please click the email us button for a quote.

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Please send us photos, measurements and item descriptions.

Thanks,

Greg Arbutine

Silver Museum Owner

The Silver Museum buys all sterling flatware and hollowware regardless if it is rare or not. We want it all!

Please sell your Sterling Silver Pieces to The Silver Museum!

Please get our offer no matter what else you eventually do. We are always looking for great pieces for our Museum.