Along with his brother Amos (see Lot 1), Lincoln Wallace is remembered for being one of the great Tlingit silver carvers of the 20th century. But both of the Wallace brothers were also prolific makers of wood carvings early in their careers, especially model totem poles. In fact, Amos and Lincoln both made model totem poles for the Western Novelty Co. in Portland, OR, in the 1940s and 1950s, and it’s possible that this pole would have been made there. The shared paint palette and identically cut bases between this and the Amos pole make this shared origin very likely. While silver castings of Lincoln’s jewelry by Griffin’s of Alaska are widely available today, a signed, wood example of Lincoln’s work is extremely rare. In the early-to-mid 1960s, Lincoln was one of the Alaska Native artists working in the Indian Arts and Crafts Board Demonstration Workshop in the Sitka Historical Park building. Many of the experimental pieces that he created in that program are now held in the Indian Arts and Crafts Board Collection in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Like his brother’s Thunderbird Pole, there is something very appealing in the clean simplicity of this diminutive totem. Here, Lincoln has created a truncated iteration of the Kiks.ádi totem pole of Wrangell, Alaska. It features, from top, the Man in the Glacier, Frog, Mother Raven, Baby Raven, and the head of a Beaver. The pole is carved in yellow cedar and is painted in blue/green, green, black, and red. The pole is mounted on a square green base and is signed “Carved by Lincoln Wallace” on the verso.

CWS