UNIDENTIFIED HAIDA ARTIST
Model Hollow Back Totem Pole, early 1890s
argillite, 14.5 x 3.25 x 3 in (36.8 x 8.3 x 7.6 cm)
unsigned.

Provenance
By Repute: Acquired c. 1890-1896 by Ms. Hall, a teacher in Port Simpson;
by descent to her daughter, Margaret Lewis;
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Ontario.

For an average-sized pole at 14.5 inches tall, this one is made up of a dense complex of images, top to bottom. At the top is a bird with a short beak that may nonetheless represent a raven. On the other hand it could represent one of several small birds that through history made their way into the pantheon of Haida crest images, from seabirds to woodpeckers and others in between. The bird’s wings are slightly open and embellished with relief-carved formline elements. Its feet are perched on the forehead of an unusual image, a humanoid bird with a long, raven-like beak. The beak is turned down upon the figure’s chest, on either side of which are the figure’s human-like arms and hands, the proper right hand appearing as if it’s holding the beak shut, the left hand just poised beside the beak. The bird-man’s wings or tail extend below its elbows with the inverted face of what may be a humanoid bear between them, its tongue held in the bird-man’s beak. His arms and body are stippled with small round cuts to create a texture.

The bottom figure is seated on the base of the pole, and despite its longish snout appears to be a bear (wolf possibly?), its body and limbs stippled with texture like the bird-man. Captured in its mouth and held by the forefeet is the inverted head and body of another humanoid bear with its erect ears resting on the squared-off base of the pole. This model is deeper than it is wide, a common proportion in argillite poles, and it is hollowed out slightly in back to lighten the sculpture overall.

Steven C. Brown

References: For discussion of, and examples of, contemporaneous Haida argillite model poles see the section on early model poles in Peter L. Macnair and Alan J. Hoover, The Magic Leaves: A History of Haida Argillite Carving, (Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 2002), p. 77-89. See also Leslie Drew and Douglas Wilson, Argillite: Art of the Haida, (Vancouver: Hancock House Ltd., 1980), p. 216-227 and throughout the book.