The first documented argillite carvings of the type known as panel pipes date to the early 1830s (see The Magic Leaves, Macnair and Hoover, page 43). The style of the carving and two-dimensional designs of this example indicate that it was most likely made in the early years surrounding that date. The green color of the argillite is rare, but part of the natural variation in tone that occurs in the Slatechuck Quarry near Skidegate village, Haida Gwaii, from which the Haida continue to obtain their argillite. Panel pipes are narrow slabs of stone that are longer than they are high, and are based on the concept of a tobacco pipe. Some examples are compact in composition, with little cutting or piercing between the figures. This example illustrates a more developed sculptural sensibility with a large amount of delicate piercing between figures. The sculpture includes four birds (two raven-like, one eagle, and one of unknown identity), one winged image with a human face, a whale, two frogs, one complete human figure and a small mammal of uncertain identity. One of the raven’s bodies has been broken out of the sculpture. The small bowl of the pipe is located in the large whale’s head near the top center of the sculpture. Part of the stem, or smoke-path, extends down from between the whale’s pectoral fins into the mouth of the large frog below, and from there to one end of the sculpture. Many later carvings of this type were pipes in name only, and the drilled hole from the bowl to the end of the stem was left unconnected.

Steven C. Brown

References: For another fine Haida-style pipe also from the 1830s see First Arts Auction, July 2021, Lot 54. See the chapter on panel pipes with Haida motifs in Peter L. Macnair and Alan L. Hoover, The Magic Leaves: A History of Haida Argillite Carving, (Royal BC Museum, 1984/2002), pp. 26-38; in particular see the pipes in figs. 16, 19 and 27; the pipe in figure 19 especially shares a pronounced curved rather than trapezoidal shape with this example. For a similar chapter see Leslie Drew and Douglas Wilson, Argillite: Art of the Haida, (Vancouver: Hancock House, 1980), pp. 168-173. See also Carol Sheehan, Pipes that won’t Smoke; Coal that won’t Burn: Haida Sculpture in Argillite, (Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1981), pp. 139-141.