Description
Fred Harvey Era Native American Sterling/Hubbel glass Heavy stamped cuff. Nice<br>large cuff 42.8 grams, marked and tested sterling with no other markings. 6.5"<br>including the 1.25" gap 1.5" wide in center.<br><br><br>Hubbell beads were glass beads imported from Italy, Bohemia and later<br>Czechoslovakia. Though there is not significant evidence the practice was be by<br>Lorenzo Hubbell, owner of Hubbell Trading Post, the beads have become associated<br>with his name. They were purchased as a less expensive way of producing jewelry.<br>Since the traders often supplied the Native artists with the materials for<br>jewelry sold at the trading posts, the traders looked for ways to lower the<br>costs of producing enough jewelry to meet the market demand. They found one way<br>through the cottage crafters in areas such as Czechoslovakia.<br><br>By the turn of the twentieth century, Czech bead makers were exporting large<br>quantities of glass beads to a worldwide market. They came in a wide array of<br>shapes, sizes and colors. Ones imported to the Southwest were shaped and colored<br>to resemble the turquoise and coral used in Native American jewelry. While their<br>use may have been only a substitute for the real gems that make up true handmade<br>jewelry from the Southwest, their import helped families in areas such as<br>Bohemia make a living during the tumultuous times in Europe.
