Native American Salt Bowl & Silver Spoon - can I sell this on ebay?

Sure does have a NA look in the design. I am not sure if it would sell better in the NA category or just in the antique metal, silver, category. Since it is not marked you cannot say sterling, you can say silver color metal. If it were mine I would probably list in both categories. I think you will be OK in the NA category as long as you do not make any claims as to tribe, or specific maker.

I have listed some NA stuff in the NA category and just not been specific about tribe and it has worked OK for me.

Salt dishes and salt spoons are popular right now.

 

> If it is Native American, can I sell it on ebay and say it is? <

I doubt it. I believe you can sell NA stuff and such as NA ***only*** if they are marked so, proven.

What is the bowl made out of? The spoon does look silver. Are you sure there are no marks of any kind on the spoon?

--- Susan

 

Is the bowl made of metal? Or is it pottery?

 

I'm not seeing NA design on either piece. The blackware could be from anywhere, especially if that shiny finish is a glaze. Real Native black pottery is polished rather than glazed. The spoon...looks funny.

 

Could the spoon be sand cast? Are you sure they go together?

 

It may well be NA, just unsigned - which means, of course, that you have to list it as southwestern, not NA.

Bev, I also thought the spoon looked sand cast.
I have a small dish with the same burnished top, and rough underside.
Mine happens to be signed, but I think not by anyone "important". LOL

 

I find it odd that a NA would make a salt spoon and bowl.
Salt cellars went out of fashion when? 19teens? 20s?
From the picture it doesn't appear to have a lot of age.


Saccharin?
That would make it 1960s-70s I think.
Souvenir item.

Just throwing my thoughts out there.

 

Obviously I'm wrong.

Talks about her pottery, but no mention of silverwork.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Gonzales

 

The pottery is well out of my area, but the spoon is Navajo, as noted on the 'San Ildefonso' link (which notes only the bowl as signed) - not particularly uncommon, and can be properly listed as 'pre 1935' NA, similar salt spoons can be found in Kline's Navajo Spoons (2001). It would be hand-hammered from a coin or coin silver slug rather than cast and would almost certainly be .900 rather than .925 fineness.

~Cheryl

 

Hammered from a coin would explain all those weird indents

 

You're only supposed to list it under NA if you know the maker & tribe; in fact, ebay gives you a little speech about it right before you post your listing.

However, I will say that ebay is EXTREMELY lax in enforcing this particular rule. One look at a page of listings for any particular piece of jewelry, etc. will show you that 90% of the listings do not mention a maker or tribe.

 

The spoon's lack of maker's mark is typical, as is form and construction, and easily dates to the first third of the 20th century - there is no problem in listing it, in accord with the 1990 Indian Arts and Crafts Act and the corresponding eBay rules, as a 'Pre 1935' Navajo spoon.

~Cheryl

 

I've seen a lot of these little Navajo salt spoons, with and without a matching silver salt dish. In this case, though, if this is really a traditional burnished black pottery bowl, it looks more like a marriage...and an inter-tribal one at that. Someone probably found the perfect size pueblo pottery bowl that the Navajo salt spoon would fit in. The main pueblo tribes that make burnished black pottery are San Ildefonso and Santa Clara, and sometimes Santo Domingo and San Juan...all totally unrelated to the Navajo.

If, however, the bowl is glazed, rather than burnished, (which I can't determine from the photo) it very likely is a Navajo piece, made from commercial black clay, and fired in a kiln...made to look like a traditional black, burnished, pueblo pot. It would still be unlikely that the two were made to be together, though, since the Navajo only very recently started making the glazed and kiln-fired black pottery. (That is, unless the spoon is recent, as well.)

If you can feel a difference in thickness between where the shiny surface meets the matte surface, it would indicate that this has had a glaze applied. Between a burnished area and a matte area, there would only be a difference in texture. If it's glazed, the shiny area will feel raised a bit.

 

Burnished pottery usually shows tool marks from the burnishing - short parallel lines almost like very faint and fine faceting.