Attr: ARTHUR SHAUGHNESSY (HEMASILAKW) (1884-1945) KWAKWA̱KA̱ʼWAKW, Model Totem Pole, c. 1935-40

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polychromed wood, 14.25 x 9.5 x 3.75 in (36.2 x 24.1 x 9.5 cm)
unsigned;
inscribed in graphite in an unknown hand, "Made by / the / Timpshian [Tsimshian] / Indians / Alert Bay / B.C.".

LOT 125
ESTIMATE: $2,000 — $3,000
PRICE REALIZED: $1540.00

Arthur Shaughnessy was an important Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw carver in the first half of the twentieth century, ranking with fellow Alert Bay carvers Mungo Martin and Willie Seaweed. He built houses and...

Arthur Shaughnessy was an important Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw carver in the first half of the twentieth century, ranking with fellow Alert Bay carvers Mungo Martin and Willie Seaweed. He built houses and carved masks and several major poles, and in 1923 was commissioned to create four 18-foot house posts for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Shaughnessy’s model poles are carved with fairly simplified forms, often with relatively flat planes; much of the detail was added with paint. This pole depicts a Thunderbird atop a Bear with a human face in its teeth and clutching a Fish.

References: For a model totem pole by Arthur Shaughnessy see Michael D. Hall and Pat Glascock, Carvings and Commerce: Model Totem Poles 1880-2010 (Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery / Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011), fig. 84.

Provenance

Private Collection, Toronto.

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Attr: ARTHUR SHAUGHNESSY (HEMASILAKW) (1884-1945) KWAKWA̱KA̱ʼWAKW

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