UNIDENTIFIED HAIDA ARTIST
Model Totem Pole, c. 1880s
argillite, with its original base: 15.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 in (39.4 x 8.9 x 6.4 cm);
with additional base: 16.5 x 5 x 4.5 in (41.9 x 12.7 x 11.4 cm)
unsigned.

Provenance
E.J. Salmon & Co.*, Victoria, B.C.;
A Vancouver Collection.

*An 1882 travel guide to British Columbia includes an advertisement for E.J. Salmon & Co., which sells imported furniture, glassware, and crockery as well as “Indian Curiosities! IN VARIETY”.

This argillite pole of medial size is set upon two bases. One, the original, has rounded upper corners and is somewhat small for the height of the pole. A later, larger base with square corners was added to better support the pole with additional stability. From the top down, the five primary figures are a bird, appearing to be a small raptor, with the back of its head and wings carved with fine texture to represent its feather coat. The bird’s body and smooth tail feathers appear at the back of the pole, at the top of the slightly hollowed rear section of the sculpture. Within the enfolded wings of the bird is the upturned head of what may be a bear. Beneath this head and between its ears, the head and forefeet of a bear cub are resting on the forehead of the next figure down, that of a man in a seated pose on the head of another mammal, most likely a bear, with upright ears facing downward. This figure’s snout just touches the head of the bottom figure, a beaver, between its ears, from which the small feet of the bear above protrude slightly. The large beaver bears the signature large incisors and a textured tail, upturned between its feet with a humanoid face at its base.

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), pp. 77-89. See also Leslie Drew and Douglas Wilson, Argillite: Art of the Haida, (Vancouver: Hancock House Ltd., 1980), pp. 216-227 and throughout the book.