What does frilly
Victorian flatware have to do with Navajo silversmithing? More than
you might imagine.
In her new book, Navajo
Spoons, Cindra Kline uncovers the unlikely convergence of Victorian
America’s obsession for commemorative spoons, love of tourism, and
the “classic period” of Navajo silversmithing.
In
the late 1800s, when the railroad reached the West, America’s
middle class became first-time tourists, and commemorative spoons,
popularized in Niagara Falls and Salem, Mass., were a favorite
portable memento. Navajo silversmiths found a market for
hand-hammered, “genuine, reservation Indian”
spoons.
Since souvenir spoons held no particular
significance for the Navajo, the crafted flatware artwork contained
whimsical and playful variations on typical Navajo jewelry design.
Spoon-stems decorated with horse heads, bears and cats,
turquoise-inlaid iced tea spoons, stamped and scalloped bonbon
spoons and thunderbird Fred Harvey company spoons are just a few in
the book’s hundreds of glossy photos, described in historic
context.
But why
the fuss over spoons, you ask? “The very love of the spoon, which
is innate in all hearts, may account for the selection,” concludes
an 1891 edition of The Jewelers’ Circular. If you doubt that you
have ever experienced innate spoon-love, the charming pieces in
Kline’s book and their unusual history may convince you
otherwise.
Navajo Spoons: Indian
Artistry and the Souvenir Trade, 1880s-1940s,Cindra
Kline, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2001. Softcover: $27.50. 128
pages.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline For the love of spoons.
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