Vintage Cuff Love

Now that warmer weather has settled into Kansas I’m beginning to wonder about new ways to adorn my only-recently bared skin. Bracelets are easily my favorite form of jewelry; sadly, they are difficult to work into a cold weather wardrobe. With spring well under way, however, I can finally bring out some of my old favorites and I can even justify adding a few new pieces to my collection.

This humongous cuff bracelet is one such new acquisition. It contains a 1923 silver liberty dollar set into a large, stamped band. This beautiful vintage piece lived in a sad little pawn shop for months before I bought it. The pawn shop is conveniently next door to one of my favorite small town thrift stores and on each thrifting trip I would stop in next door and ogle the bracelet. After several visits I finally asked to examine the bracelet more closely and as soon as I slipped it on my wrist I knew it was destined to come home with me.



My fascination with the bracelet motivated my to learn more about this type of jewelry so I pulled out my vintage jewelry books and spent an afternoon reading about vintage American Indian metalwork. I now know that this bracelet was most likely produced in the 1930’s or 40’s for the white American tourist trade. Pieces like this one are known as “Fred Harvey” style jewelry. This refers to a chain of shops in the West and Southwest that commissioned American Indian jewelry with popular themes for the purpose of reselling to vacationers. The pieces are generally made of silver and characterized by simple “Indian-style” (not necessarily actual traditional symbols) stampings like arrows and suns.

As a native of Kansas and a student of American history I am obsessed with all things western. I’m also a vintage-craving jewelry fanatic and it soon became obvious that one bracelet was not enough! I couldn’t help but embark on a “Fred Harvey” search on Etsy and ended up getting super lucky. I found this fantastic little silver and turquoise cuff for around $10.



These new-old bracelets will join two similar pieces that I thrifted years ago but have only recently begun to appreciate. Until I took the time to research this style of vintage jewelry I had no idea that my original two cuffs had such an interesting history. From now on I’ll definitely keep an open mind to thrift store jewelry that seems ordinary-you never know when you might uncover something that has been collecting character for 70 years!