UNIDENTIFIED HAIDA ARTIST, SKIDEGATE, HAIDA GWAII

This late 19th century argillite pipe appears to be a transitional form that is a combination of the intricately interlocked figures of earlier Haida panel pipes and the meerschaum pipes of European sailors. It features a bone mouthpiece with a longish stem and figures that appear to be, from left: nestling bird, human figure with eyes closed grasping his head and the bird (perhaps a sleeping or deceased European person, based on hairstyle, clothing, and closed eyes), bear, and a second human figure, likely European, with closed eyes and beard grasping the bear. The inclusion of the nestling bird is rare in argillite, but this imagery does appear in Haida and Tlingit pipes carved from walnut gunstocks (see UBC Museum of Anthropology object 3260/34 for an example). The style of carving is also interesting, as it takes the incised dashing from earlier argillite figural group carvings and pipes and exaggerates it into a highly textured surface.

Christopher W. Smith