One of the reasons I started a podcast was to try to capture voices that I thought would be lost in the future that relate to our profession. A distinct profession of collecting and preserving Western and Native American art. Unfortunately, because I interview a lot of older individuals, there is no doubt we will at some point lose a voice.
This week we lost Bille Hougart. Bille was such an interesting guy. I got to interview him back in May of 2019 and I wanted to re-feature this podcast so you can see the kind of individuals that are the foundation of our profession and love what they do. Bille loved what he did.
Originally, Bille was doing wildlife research. That's where he came from, and he harnessed that researcher’s mentality and knack for organizing large amounts of information and incorporated it into his love for Mexican and Native American jewelry. Bille’s research on Native American hallmarks became an invaluable resource for all of us and we use it daily in our jewelry identification process. So many of the hallmarks that we need to know or try to understand were identified through Bille’s research. The fifth Edition of Bille’s book just came out and is available on billehougartbooks.com.
With all of that in mind, please enjoy episode 49 of Art Dealer Diaries. I want people to be able to hear and enjoy the magnificence of who Bille Hougart was and will always be through his research.
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Bill Hougart whose books on Native American Silversmith's and Mexican jewelry hallmarks are the gold standard for the industry. If you want to understand how Native American signatures and Mexican Hallmarks on jewelry started and the different types and dates of when these hallmarks began, this is a must listen to podcast.