The Thunderbird Shop (Frank Patania) — Southwest Jewelry Shop & Marks

Name-card placeholder — historic shop-mark imagery to follow. © Turquoise Skies Inc.

Silver shop · Santa Fe, New Mexico & Tucson, Arizona · est. 1927 · Southwest Jewelry Guide

Overview

Per Hougart, master artisan Frank Patania (1899–1964) "established a style of hand crafted southwestern American jewelry by blending European silversmith technology and Native American design." Patania opened his Santa Fe–based Thunderbird Curios shop in 1927; the name was later changed to the Thunderbird Shop. Hougart describes it as "the home base where a select group of talented Native American silversmiths could hone their skills, and where his (and their) products were sold." A second shop opened in Tucson in 1937, and the shop was among the early adopters of using petrified wood in jewelry.

The Santa Fe shop closed in 1964 following Patania's death and was re-opened in 1968 by his son Frank Patania, Jr., who closed it in 2007. Grandson Sam Patania carries on the family silversmith tradition. Because of his early influence on southwestern silver crafts, Hougart notes, Frank Patania has been called a "William Spratling of the American Southwest."

The shop marks

"Marks: FP (rocker engraved inside a diamond; earliest mark used sporadically); FP (conjoined and embossed; first used in the early 1940s) and a thunderbird stamp (the 'thunderbird' mark was first used in the late 1930s); FP (conjoined and embossed letters, inside an oval, in the 1950s); FP (conjoined, incised letters, inside an oval, in the 1950s); FP (conjoined; incised letters) and a thunderbird stamp; a thunderbird stamp only, with sterling (the thunderbird mark measures about 2mm, wingtip-to-wingtip)" — Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022), p. ~371.

In the 1960s a few pieces by Thunderbird Shop silversmiths were marked with their personal stamps while Frank Jr.'s stamp served as the shop mark. After Patania's death, his widow Aurora gave the thunderbird stamp to Julian Lovato.

Artists connected to the Thunderbird Shop

Hougart lists Charles Begay, Alberto Contreras, Carlos Diaz, Don Enos, Jimmy Herald, Lewis Lomay, Julian Lovato, and Arturo and Andy Rivera among the silversmiths who worked in Patania's shops. See the directory entries for Frank Patania, Charles Begay, Jimmy Herald, Lewis Lomay and Julian Lovato.

References

• Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Schiffer Publishing, 2022. Shops section, p. ~371.