Katherine Wilson — Navajo Silversmith Hallmark

Name card for Katherine Wilson — T.Skies Silversmith Directory

Name-card placeholder — hallmark imagery to follow.

Navajo · documented in the T.Skies hallmark library

Katherine Wilson (c.1907–1985; Navajo) was active from the 1930s through the 1980s. She was the wife of Ike Wilson (c.1900–1942), with whom she collaborated at the Kelsey Trading Company near Zuni, at C. G. Wallace, and probably elsewhere near Zuni. She also worked for Tanner's in Albuquerque.

Prior to Ike Wilson's death in 1942, she was known as Mrs. Ike Wilson. According to the Hougart record, she was an accomplished and award-winning silversmith. The extent to which she collaborated with her husband during his lifetime is uncertain, but she continued to use his bow-and-arrow stamp on her work after his death. Katherine Wilson was the sister of Charlie Bitsui. Her second husband was also a silversmith, Sol Ondelacy (c.1903–deceased), a Zuni silversmith who was married to her and documented in the Hougart record.

The Hougart record also notes that a corrected attribution first published in Messier (2014) showed that the bow-and-arrow stamp, long attributed to Ike Wilson, is correctly attributed to Ike and Katherine Wilson together.

The mark

"Bow and arrow [shared with Ike Wilson; Katherine used the stamp on her work after Ike's death in 1942]"

The bow-and-arrow mark was originally attributed to Ike Wilson and later (per Messier, 2014) corrected to belong to Ike and Katherine Wilson. Katherine used the stamp on her own work following Ike's death.

References

Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. Schiffer Publishing, 2022. Entry approx. p. ~29875.
Messier, 2014 (attribution correction for the bow-and-arrow stamp, cited in Hougart 5e).

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