Coral in Native American Jewelry: Trade Routes, Symbolism, and Substitutes
Coral arrived in the American Southwest as a Mediterranean trade commodity, not a locally harvested material. Zuni and Navajo smiths incorporated it alongside turquoise, shell, and jet in squash blossom necklaces and mosaic work. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, glass and plastic substitutes were already replacing coral beads in traded jewelry — a collector caution documented in primary sources.
Mateo's Field Notes
Bedinger documents the expansion of Zuni material vocabulary in direct terms: "To the turquoise, white shell, and jet of their ancestors, the Zunis have added cannel coal from England, several kinds of shell, including the red abalone, white spiny oyster, mother-of-pearl, and the prestigious coral." (~line 9568–9574.) Coral is explicitly distinguished here from the ancestral materials — it is an addition, not an original component. Its prestige is noted directly: "the prestigious coral."
The visual effect of coral in combination with silver and turquoise is described by Sikorski, cited in Bedinger: "the lustrous silver, the waxy blue turquoise, the warm-colored coral, the sober jet, and the milky, iridescent shell. Such jewelry is a miniature showcase of the riches of nature." (~line 9600.) The pairing of warm coral against cool turquoise and silver is not accidental — it is a deliberate aesthetic in the squash blossom tradition.
Bedinger also documents coral's use in the squash blossom necklace form: "coral and glass trade beads with silver pomegranates interspersed" (~line 4408) — illustrating that coral arrived alongside glass trade beads as part of the same supply network. The two materials occupied the same commercial channels, which is precisely why substitution became possible.
That substitution is documented in ISJ-1868: in the jacla (earring) configuration, "Three coral beads at each end" (~line 2953) is a standard description of period authentic work; but the same source notes that "coral beads are now replaced by glass or plastic" (~line 2959) — recording the substitution pressure as an observable fact within the 1868–1930 documentation window.
Collector's Handbook
- Coral is not local. Mediterranean red coral (Corallium rubrum) reached the Southwest via trade networks. Pieces described as "old coral" should be assessed for trade-bead provenance, not assumed to be from a nearby source.
- Glass substitution is early. The replacement of coral beads with glass or plastic is documented within the 1868–1930 period covered by ISJ-1868. Older is not automatically authentic: glass coral-colored beads appear in period jewelry alongside genuine coral.
- Color anchor. Genuine Mediterranean coral is "warm-colored" — Sikorski's term — a range from salmon pink through deep red-orange. Uniformly bright red at a low price is a plastic flag.
- Weight test. Genuine coral is significantly heavier than plastic and lighter than glass of the same size. Combined with surface texture (coral has visible growth structure under magnification; plastic and glass do not), weight helps distinguish bead types.
- Squash blossom context. In necklace forms where coral and glass beads appear together — as Bedinger documents — assume mixed materials unless each bead has been individually tested. "Old pawn" squash blossom pieces frequently contain both.
Related Entries in the Directory
Browse artists working with coral in the Silversmith Directory.
Primary Sources
- Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. University of New Mexico Press, 1973, ~line 4408 (coral and glass trade beads in squash blossom); ~line 9568–9574 (Zuni material expansion, coral as addition); ~line 9600 (Sikorski description of combined materials).
- Frank, Larry. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest 1868–1930. Schiffer, ~line 2953 (three coral beads, jacla configuration); ~line 2959 (glass/plastic substitution).