Haida, Woman and Young Girl, ca. 1840-1860, black argillite and bone, 11 x 3.25 x 2.75 in, 28 x 8.3 x 7 cm. Provenance: private collection, British Columbia. ... Haida artists began carving standing figures representing Euro-Americans in the early 1840s. Most of these figures depict foreign sea captains; occasionally they depict the captains’ wives. This example, showing a woman accompanied by a child, is quite rare. Most of these works were carved in argillite alone, while some were made with inset faces carved of ivory or bone. This further distinguished the subjects as being European. ... These figures are notable for the attention paid to the details of their clothing. In this work, the artist carefully delineated folds, pleats and decorative details of clothing, and paid special attention to the mother’s hair, which is beautifully combed and plaited. ... For discussions of mid-19th c. Euro-American argillte figures, see Peter L. Macnair and Alan L. Hoover, The Magic Leaves: A History of Haida Argillite Carving (Royal British Columbia Museum 2002) pp. 56-61, and Leslie Drew and Douglas Wilson, Argillite: Art of the Haida (Hancock House 1980) pp. 189-192.--- CATEGORIES: First Nations, Native, Indian, Northwest Coast