Bell Trading Post is a legend in the jewelry industry of the American Southwest. The company was founded in 1932 in Albuquerque by businessman Jacques Michelson. He traveled around the Indian reservations of New Mexico, buying silver jewelry with turquoise from local craftsmen and resell it through roadside stalls that he opened along the new Highway 66: Illinois-Arizona.
In 1935, Michelson, inspired by the Mexican experience of American designer-entrepreneur William Spratling, set up his own jewelry workshop. The Native American craftsmen he hired dismantled and melted down bulky and heavy “traditional” Indian jewelry, and used the resulting materials to create “new civilized” Indian jewelry—not without authentic charm, but lighter and more comfortable to wear. From one old Navajo product, Michelson made at least three new products under the Bell Trading Post brand.
By the mid-1950s, through significant savings on the cost of silver and turquoise, Michelson had transformed Bell Trading Post into “the most successful jewelry company in the American West.” However, the prosperity did not last long: in 1957, Mikhelson passed away; The profitability of the roadside shops he created began to fall in connection with the federal reorganization of the Route 66 highway.
In 1969, brothers Jacques Jr. and Douglas Michelson, who inherited their father’s company, decided to liquidate Bell Trading Post and move the family jewelry business to Los Angeles. The Sunbell Corporation they founded in a new location existed until the end of the 1980s and quietly faded into history. As for Bell Trading Post, experts associate the emergence of a new jewelry style, now known as “South-West,” with its activities.
