Raymond Williams was a second-generation carver for the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop (YOCS) in Seattle and perhaps the most well-known member of the renowned Williams family of model totem pole makers. This unusual mask is an earlier, more eccentric style that pairs strong sculpture with a total paint coverage of stippling, dashing, formline elements, and diagonal lines. The mask probably depicts a medicine man with a frog emerging from his mouth and a small human figure on his forehead. The figure is flanked by two reptilian creatures that may represent sea monsters. It’s possible that Ray drew inspiration for this mask from the many zoological samples and ethnographic objects in the YOCS shop at the time. YOCS would often wholesale the work of local Seattle artists to Alaskan shops in the 1950s and 1960s, which explains the inscription about Ketchikan on the back.

Christopher W. Smith