I have just returned from the annual Marin County Art of the Americas Show held in Marin, California.  What an experience!  Two hundred dealers in historic arts of the americas converging from across the country on the Marin Convention Center in San Rafael, across the bay from San Francisco.  More than 1000 collectors visited our booths during the three-day event.  This was the 25th year for the Marin show, and I’ve had my booth in all twenty five.

After all these years, I’m still floored by the beauty, and yes, the strangeness of the objects on display . . . lightly decorated stirrups used by colonial-era Spanish horsemen; painted Plains Indian warshields; beautifully sculptured mountain sheep horn spoons from British Columbia; rock crystal bead necklaces from Ancient Peru; and much, much more. 

Because more than 30 dealers exhibited American Indian jewelry, I had a rare chance to look at a vast array of pieces.  I found some truly exceptional items.  I'm most excited by my acquisition of a buckle and bolo by Kenneth Begay. 

Kenneth Begay was among the most prominent silversmiths of the 1950’s and 1960’s.  During the 1950’s, Kenneth Begay was working as a silversmith at the White Hogan Shop in Scottsdale.  While he was at the White Hogan Shop, an association of cotton growers commissioned Begay to design items of silver jewelry that would be given to association members as mementoes at their Phoenix annual meeting. 

Each item had a cotton boll as its theme, and only one type of item (buckle, bolo, or tie clip, etc.) was presented each year.  The buckle and bolo, that I acquired in Marin, with cotton bolls depicted in relief, are exquisite examples of items the cotton growers received.  I'm offering the wonderful Kenneth Begay buckle, with it's cotton boll and bud design and the Kenneth Begay bolo, with it's cotton boll neckpiece and cotton bale tips, for sale in my gallery.

Enough for now.  I hope you’ll join me in future Marti’s Adventures to look at my other “little discoveries.”