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This is an original (likely made out of pure silver) British/English Indian Trade/Diplomatic Gorget from the 1700s, given as a gift to a Native American chief.This gorget was likely made in England/Great Britain but it could have been made in one of the American colonies of the British.Sometimes these are called trade gorgets but the purpose was to impress Native American chiefs with these as gifts and to try to promote peace and alliances.There’s a chance this could be a British officer’s gorget from the French and Indian War/7 Years War or from the Revolutionary War but most likely it’s a gorget that was used for diplomatic purposes as a gift for a Native American chief in the 1700s; a peace medal would have probably been given to the chief too.The expert Native American item collector and dealer (and author of books on Native Americans) who sold this to me classified this as an original 1700s period English/British gorget which was made to be given to Native American chiefs along with other gifts like peace medals.Native American chiefs in the 1700s and 1800s often wore metal gorgets and metal medals that had been given to them by the British or by the Americans.The gorget has a significant weight for the size of the gorget so it’s probably made of pure silver.
On the front of the gorget is the British royal coat of arms in raised relief.This gorget was made in 1796 or before as I’ve researched and read that in 1796 British military and other gorgets started having the king or queen’s royal monogram instead of the royal coat of arms.This item was probably made and given to a Native American chief well before 1796 because the Revolutionary War ended in 1783 so this gorget likely dates to 1783 or before – most likely to before 1783.It might date from the French and Indian War/7 Years War period (1750s-1760s) or from the Revolutionary War period (1775-1783).
The item dimensions are: 2 inches from top to bottom and 1 and 3/4” from left to right.The height of the gorget is ¼”.There are holes at each side of top of gorget so that the Native American chief could have used a rope/ribbon to suspend the gorget from around the neck.
Such gorgets as this from the 1700s routinely sell at sales for prices of $10,000 or more with some selling in the range of $13,000-$15,000 or more (you may verify that online by viewing sale prices sold for).
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