A large round inlaid multi-stone sterling silver cigar ash tray. The. enter of the ash tray has a very intricately cut inlaid design comprised of a number of piece of Lapis, Mother of Pearl, Turquoise, Onyx and coral. All pieced together, they combine to make this stunning and very traditional Native American design. The design is that akin to some patterns found on Pueblo pottery from the early 20th Century. We believe the piece was made by a member of the Navajo Tribe. The Navajo tribe, now located in occupying portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah, and northwestern New Mexico, was the first Native American group to learn Mexican silversmithing techniques. Navajo artist Atsidi Chon then taught the art to a member of the Zuni tribe.

This is an example of the Navajo 'cluster work' technique, characterized by a series of shaped stones set into various bezel settings. This 'cluster work' later evolved into the more intricate petit point and needlepoint styles. A variety of bold and colourful stones are cemented into channels created by soldering pieces of silver to a backing plate. The stones are then polished flat, resulting in multicolored designs with veins of silver running through them.

The design of the ash tray features the raised center piece which is flanked by four rests. Thes can be used to hold the cigar in.  Bordering the center area is a long and deep extended moat area for collecting ash.  There are four areas of hand stamped patterns struck into the inner edge of the ash tray.

Native made larger pieces of silver, like this ash tray, are very rare indeed.  Native artists are known for thier jewellery and rarely ventured into larger home pieces.  To find them in such scale, quality and condition is exceptionally difficult.

There are hand engraved initial of the makers mark, possibly "J A B" hand engraved on the underside of the rim. Through extensive research we have not been able to attributed the artist behind this special and very rare piece.