This pole has no added base and contains a considerable amount of detail for its height (nine and a half inches tall). The top figure is difficult to identify with certainty, but it appears to be a humanoid mountain goat. It has a short, mammal-like snout and prominent teeth. A pair of short horns lie between the short, mammal-like ears. This figure sits between the ears of the figure below in the manner of a human, with its knees flexed and its arms laid in its lap. In place of human hands, however, are two-toed feet like a goat’s.

The next figure down is a composite image made up of a birdlike figure holding a frog in its mouth and a seated human between the wings. However, this “bird” lacks a real beak and instead has a mammal-like snout and ears, a toothy mouth, and wings with a strong joint ovoid and four feathers on each side. The small frog is held in the mouth, draped over the lower jaw with its four legs laid onto the wings of the larger figure. The human image seated between the wings has its knees drawn up, its feet resting on the forehead of the figure below, and its arms held comfortably at its sides.

The ears of the bear-like figure at the bottom of the pole contain human-like feet with short, rounded toes pointed down. These feet are associated with the human figure captured in its mouth. The bear’s large tongue is laid on the chest and held in the mouth of the upside-down human figure, whose hands hold the bear’s lower lip on either side of the tongue. The human image is flanked by what may be its wings, indicating the possibility of a raven-human transformation. Like the human, the wings are upside-down, their large ovoid joints at the bottom and feathers pointing upward.

The three complex figures on this pole are carved with unusual and imaginative imagery, drawn from the rich history of human and animal interactions recorded in the highly developed visual arts and narrative tales of Northwest Coast oral traditions over many centuries.

Steven C. Brown

Although unsigned and unmarked, the intricate and interlaced figures of this 19th century argillite pole point to a Skidegate, Haida Gwaii, origin by an as-yet-unidentified master carver. There are six figures depicted, from top: mountain goat, supernatural being (bear-like figure with wings), frog, human, Wasgo, and inverted human with the Wasgo’s tongue entering its mouth. This model likely depicts a particular Haida story. The complexity of the design is especially impressive when one considers that it is only nine-and-a-half inches tall, and each figure is sculpted to be interacting and overlapping with all the others. The pole is hollowed out and has a pleasant taper that is accentuated by a vertical line along the back edge of the pole that demarcates an area that is uncarved. A fine example of 19th century argillite carving.

Christopher W. Smith