UNIDENTIFIED HAIDA MAKER, Model Totem Pole, 1919

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argillite, 6.25 x 2.25 x 2.5 in (15.9 x 5.7 x 6.3 cm)
with affixed paper label, inscribed in blue ink in an unknown hand, "Massett, Q.C. IslL. / B.C. / 1919 / C.L. PATCH".

LOT 123
ESTIMATE: $1,500 — $2,500
PRICE REALIZED: $1,800.00

This finely carved pole is illustrated in Marius Barbeau’s 1953 groundbreaking book on Haida myths as illustrated through argillite totem poles and other carvings, in the chapter discussing various Thunderbird myths. The figures illustrated are a baleen Whale (possibly a humpback), and a humanoid Thunderbird grasping a Whale. Although the pole is documented as having been purchased in Massett, Barbeau seems to suggest that it may have been carved by either Thomas Moody or Tom Price in Skidegate.

Provenance

Purchased at Massett in 1919 by the Ottawa Private Collector Clyde Patch;

A New York Collection.

Exhibitions

Marius Barbeau, Haida Myths Illustrated in Argillite Carvings (Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, Bulletin No. 127, Anthropological Series No. 32, 1953), fig. 179.

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UNIDENTIFIED HAIDA MAKER

Further images

Provenance

Exhibitions