Center Wabanaki design, double curves/diamonds - Repro NE Native: Ken Hamilton

Description

This cuff bracelet has a beautiful large Wabanaki design
at it's center.  A diamond with double curves at it's side points is done in a thick rocker engraved line - with a smaller diamond of thin rocker engraved line at the center and at the center of the smaller diamond is a stamped circle.
There is a scalloped rocker engraved border of medium thickness around the entire bracelet.   This was made by Kenneth Hamilton,
artist of reproduction trade items -1650-mid 1800.  The cuff style bracelet is .7 0z of sterling silver ...
(Wabanaki Confederacy - 5 tribes living in what is now Maine, Vermont & Eastern Canada: Abenaki, Maliseet, MicMac, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot).
My apologies for slight reflections in the photos- I do not have the silver photographic skills I would like.  Be assured this bracelet is bright untarnished unblemished silver.
Stamps used here were designed and made by Ken.
This would fit an average size woman's  wrist ...  You can very gently bend it to fit your wrist if it is somewhat larger or smaller than the size of the bracelet as is.  Do not bend often as metal bent in one place frequently will ultimately break along the bend line.
This is 3/4" high, the silver measures 5" long and the opening is 1 1/2" long .... it weighs .8 oz.  Silver here is thicker than the original trade silver.  Ken has not been able not get the right thickness of silver  (original trade silver thickness)  to work with - But - even tho it is less authentic, I prefer this thicker silver over what he used to use.    (the ".8" written in green that you see on one end of this bracelet was placed there by Ken and is the weight of this bracelet.-  I will remove it w/silver polish prior to shipping, but I wanted to leave it in photo to show you the weight as measured by the artist)...
Trade Silver:  When early European traders needed items to trade with the Native Americans in exchange for furs.  These items had to be something Native Americans valued but could not make themselves.  The items needed to be small and portable to be carried long distances to sites to trade.  Glass beads and silver jewelry were two items that filled this need perfectly.  The first silver items were made in Europe but soon English and French silversmiths "living in the new world" made most of the silver items for the fur trade and for treaty obligations with the Native Americans.   Trade silver was made for the fur trade from 1650-mid 1800's.
Kenneth Hamilton uses period techniques of the trade silver era - 2 of those then common techniques are used on this bracelet, rocker engraving and stamping.  Ken stamps his maker's mark onto on end of the cuff of this bracelet.  It is 2 joined ovals with a K in one and an H in the other.
Kenneth Hamilton is a well known artist of reproduction trade items -1650-mid 1800. Ken is of Lakota heritage and an adopted Ottawa.  Ken Hamilton researches his trade silver and other designs, spending time pouring over books, pictures and visiting museum collections. I know that museum directors and collections managers in most Maine museums are familiar with Ken and his work. It is well researched. Since his mother is the leading authority on trade silver - Ken knows his stuff.  In last photo of slideshow above, Ken appears as an Ottawa warrior, circa 1777, in full regalia (holding one of his tomahawks) on the front cover of his mother’s 1995 book: “Silver in the Fur Trade 1680-1820” by Martha Wilson Hamilton.  Like many early French or English trade silver craftsmen, Ken is of some Native American heritage and is married to a Penobscot woman, Nikki Johnson. He writes of trade silver "....trade silver commercial forms really begin in the 1740's as simple ring brooches, arm and wrist bands, round and crescent gorgets, and ear bobs. After French Canada was surrendered to the English in 1760, new forms of silver ornaments appear quickly. Larger flat/pierced brooches, and ear wheels and more familiar ear rings. ..... by 1815 massive volumes were being traded to NE Indians and eventually became "treaty" or "annuity" gifts of the US and Canadian (England) governments."