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19TH CENTURY
NATIVE AMERICAN TRADE SILVER
ARMBAND: A single
19TH Century
German Silver Native
American Armband. Silver ornaments were one of the
earliest items carried in the inventory of the fur
buyers who began trading with the Native Americans in
the first decades of the 1700’s, and due to the
immediate popularity of the bright metal ornaments,
their value continued to grow through the 19TH
Century as the trade moved out on to the prairies,
plains and into the Western mountains.
The trade silver of the 1700’s and early 1800’s was
often made of sterling or coin grade silver. By the
1830’s, first the Germans, then the British, were able
to copy and improve upon a metal initially produced by
the Chinese as early as the 1600’s known as “paktong”,
literally “white copper”. Recognized as a viable
substitute for sterling silver with the obvious
advantages, the Germans developed the alloy with a
mixture of copper, nickel and zinc, hence the name
“German silver”. Once available in sufficient
quantities, German silver replaced sterling silver in
the trading posts and on the trade routes throughout the
West.
This armband, measuring 3 ¼” in diameter and 2” wide,
was most likely produced in the later years of the 19TH
Century, certainly in the post-Civil War years. Other
similar styled armbands are known, in two instances
identified to particular Indians from whom they were
collected, and those known examples feature the same
style of rolled stamped decorative strip running the
length of the armband. With all of the advances of the
Industrial Revolution, machine manufacturing replaced
the hand work of previous years, and the production of
trade silver was no exception. These armbands were
probably manufactured by roll stamping long sheets of
metal pre-cut to width, then the armbands were cut to
the appropriate length, the tie holes were punched in
each end, and finally the armbands were formed in the
finished shape as a final step.
This armband shows some signs of use and wear, but it is
still full form, and the design is still legible along
its full length.
Recently obtained from a very old collection, these
pieces of trade silver are anything but common and they
seldom appear on the market. This would be an excellent
piece to display with a Northwest Trade Gun, any of the
tacked Indian-used guns, or any grouping of Native
American artifacts. (0106) $550
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