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Artworks
JIMMY JOHN (1876-1988), MOWACHAHT/MUCHALAHT (NUU-CHAH-NULTH)
Model Totem Pole, c. 1930swood and acrylic paint, 16.25 x 3.5 x 2.5 in (41.3 x 8.9 x 6.3 cm)
unsigned.LOT 126
ESTIMATE: $1,000 — $1,500
PRICE REALIZED: $915.00Further images
Jimmy John was an important maker who worked in a variety of media through the 20th century, but he is best known for his model poles. Working for nearly a...Jimmy John was an important maker who worked in a variety of media through the 20th century, but he is best known for his model poles. Working for nearly a century, his style of carving and painting changed to meet the demands of the market as well his own needs and abilities as he aged. His earliest works were fully sculptural and featured a lot of bright paints, later reducing his palette to just red and black, and eventually abandoning paint altogether in favour of a distinctive chip-style of carving.
This pole is from Jimmy John’s earlier style that incorporates bright paints with clean sculptural elements. The pole depicts, from top: eagle, owl, and a sun mask over a pair of eyes in pill-shaped ovoids. The pole is quite thin and elegant when viewed in profile and, from the front, features a subtle taper from bottom to top.
Christopher W. Smith
References: For three earlier examples of Jimmy John model totems (c. 1930) see Martha Black, HuupuKanum Tupaat: Out of the Mist: Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs, (Victoria: Royal BC Museum, 1999), p. 111. For models of the Captain Jack house posts by the artist in the RBCM Collection see ibid., p. 69.
Provenance
Private Collection, Calgary, AB.