June 22, 2024 Brian Lebel's Santa Fe Old West Events Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/22/2024
Artistically designed and intricately engraved, 40" long, 1 1/2" wide, 3/4" opening and 33" to the middle hole. Engraved buckle measures 2 1/4" round featuring cut out star, 3/4" stylized keeper and 2" silver tip. Back center silver (seen in 9 1/2" back of belt leather) with 2 3/4" round medallion featuring star cut out and nestled in crescent moon with 16 spots linked with 3 silver chains to 2 conchos and leather end cover on tooled belt, all made and signed by "Ricarda". Excellent, wearable condition, circa 1990s.
Ricarda Cause was a world class silversmith whose lifetime of work has been featured in books, on public television, and in western art galleries. She sold her pieces at the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering and the Western Folklife Center has featured her work. As a child who grew up on a ranch in Winnemucca, Nevada, Cause admired her father’s workshop and “loved being out there with all the tools.” Inspired by her mother’s love of silver jewelry, Cause started with silver belt buckles. She later learned how to make silver bits and spurs and how to engrave. Later making more jewelry than bits and spurs, she continued to make exquisitely crafted belt buckles, bracelets, and concho belts. Cause made her home in Lakeview, Oregon. Mostly self-taught, Ricarda also attended school at Miller Bit and Spur, took a gun-engraving course, visited with every artist she met, and read every book she could find about silversmithing. As her expertise grew, so did her reputation as a world class silversmith. Exhibiting at many different western art shows, Ricarda was also featured in Range, Western Horseman, and a televised segment of PBS’s Oregon Art Beat. She especially enjoyed the entire creative process from envisioning a design to making it a reality.
Item Dimensions: 40" L.