Twice a year, a van rolls into South Pasadena loaded with boxes of old silver and turquoise, and for two days a Mission Street gallery turns into a treasure hunt.
Piles of Pawn, Holiday Edition, returns to Santa Fe Crafts Native American Gallery on Friday and Saturday, December 4 and 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
The format has not changed in years, because it does not need to. The boxes come out, the lids come off, and people start digging. This is jewelry you pick up, turn over and try on: rings, cuffs, bracelets and necklaces in silver, turquoise and coral, all of it made by hand and no two pieces alike. The gallery’s own line for the weekend says it best:
Search through the boxes. You never know what you’ll find!
What Pawn Means
The name throws some people, so here is the short version. In the Southwest, pawn has a meaning of its own. For more than a century, trading posts there have doubled as a kind of bank. A family’s jewelry was its savings, worn on the wrist instead of locked in a vault. When cash ran short, a bracelet or a necklace went to the trader as security and was bought back later. Pieces that were never reclaimed eventually went up for sale. The system is still in use today.
That history is the appeal. This is jewelry that was made to be worn, and was, often for decades, before it reached a sale table.
How It Gets To Mission Street in South Pasadena
The sale exists because of one trader, a longtime friend of the gallery whose family has been in the Native American jewelry business for more than 60 years. He works his way across the Southwest buying from pawn shops, from artists and from other dealers. Twice a year he loads the van and points it toward South Pasadena.
Who Is Behind The Counter
Santa Fe Crafts has been in business since 1984, and owners Barbara Goldeen and John Selmer have spent more than four decades with this material. Goldeen is an accredited appraiser. The two of them organized the first museum exhibition devoted to Hopi Third Mesa wicker basketry at the Southwest Museum. So if you pull something out of a box and want to know what it is, how old it is or where it likely came from, you are standing in the right room.
The rest of the gallery is open during the sale as well, with Navajo textiles, Pueblo pottery, baskets, Hopi katsina dolls and vintage Mexican jewelry, and more jewelry.
One practical note… Every piece is one of a kind, so the early crowd gets first pick. And with the holidays close, it is a good place to find a gift nobody else will be unwrapping.
Event Details
Piles Of Pawn, Holiday Edition
Friday and Saturday, December 4 and 5, 2026
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days
Santa Fe Crafts Native American Gallery
1123 Mission Street, South Pasadena
(626) 799-3070
santafecrafts.com
Instagram: @santafecrafts
