Robert Ridley was an accomplished Haida carver who produced wood and argillite model poles, model canoes (see lot 101), house models, and feast spoons. He also created at least two poles in monumental scale for the Capilano Suspension Bridge in North Vancouver and Thunderbird Park in Victoria. His work is well represented in major public collections and can be found in the Museum of Vancouver, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.

This model pole is carved in red cedar and features a Supernatural Being at the top of the pole with a Bear-like head and the body and wings of a Bird, a Dragonfly in the centre, and a Bear seated at the bottom, mounted on a chamfered base. Ridley’s command of classic Haida sculpture is on full display here, with the Bear formed within the cylindrical shape of the pole, the central Dragonfly figure carved in high relief from a back panel, and the Supernatural Being sitting atop the sculpture, carved in the round as a finial. In Ridley’s skilled hands, these three different approaches to sculpture unite as a cohesive composition. This pole is likely an earlier example of Ridley’s work and features a hollowed-out back and mineral-based pigments of green, red, and black.

Christopher W. Smith