Bangle with Navajo Motif, United States

A slim bright cuff with a dark band of tiny tally marks.

This sterling silver bangle with Navajo motif is Navajo, from the United States, and is contemporary. Stamped designs such as arrows, leaves and geometric bands are pressed into silver with hand-cut steel dies, a technique long associated with Southwestern Native American jewelry. A narrow open bracelet with flat bright edges and a recessed black stripe running across the front. Short upright lines of different lengths are stamped into the dark channel in uneven groups. It is 2.25 inches long, 0.25 deep and 1.75 high.

A tally of something, kept very neatly and never explained.