Chester Yellowhair — Navajo Silversmith Hallmark

Name card for Chester Yellowhair — T.Skies Silversmith Directory

Name-card placeholder — hallmark imagery to follow.

Navajo · documented in the T.Skies hallmark library

Chester Yellowhair (1912–?; Navajo) was a student of Ambrose Roanhorse. He and Roanhorse were instrumental in forming the Navajo Arts and Crafts Guild. Yellowhair worked as a silversmith at Bell Trading Post and Southwest Arts and Crafts, and as a silversmith instructor at the Indian schools in Albuquerque and Fort Wingate.

In 1940, John Adair, on behalf of the IACB (Indian Arts and Crafts Board), ordered four heavy bracelets from Chester Yellowhair to be placed in the sample room in connection with an exhibition held in New York City at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The bracelets were to be numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4 with the initials "C Y."

The Hougart record further notes that Roanhorse and Yellowhair helped form the Guild. Chester Yellowhair served on a committee that helped form the Guild and went on to establish Guild centers in various locations (per the broader Hougart narrative at approx. p. ~24737). The Hougart chronological narrative also documents that the two were "borrowed" from the Albuquerque Indian School in 1937 for Guild-formation activities.

The mark

"C Y"

The mark is recorded as "C Y" — the initials Chester Yellowhair used on Guild-commissioned pieces.

References

Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Schiffer Publishing, 2022. Entry approx. p. ~30445.
Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. (Cited in Hougart context, p. ~794.)

Know more about this artist? Contact T.Skies. See also: Ambrose Roanhorse (teacher and Guild co-founder).