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    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: RAYMOND WILLIAMS, DITIDAHT/NUU-CHAH-NULTH, Mask, 1956
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: RAYMOND WILLIAMS, DITIDAHT/NUU-CHAH-NULTH, Mask, 1956
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: RAYMOND WILLIAMS, DITIDAHT/NUU-CHAH-NULTH, Mask, 1956
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: RAYMOND WILLIAMS, DITIDAHT/NUU-CHAH-NULTH, Mask, 1956
    Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: RAYMOND WILLIAMS, DITIDAHT/NUU-CHAH-NULTH, Mask, 1956

    RAYMOND WILLIAMS, DITIDAHT/NUU-CHAH-NULTH

    Mask, 1956
    cedar wood and acrylic paint, 12.5 x 7.5 x 3.5 in (31.8 x 19.1 x 8.9 cm)
    inscribed [date? by the artist???? unknown hand???] in ink, "KETCHIKAN / ALASKA / AUG 17 - 1956".
    LOT 125
    ESTIMATE: $1,000 — $1,500
    PRICE REALIZED: $1,830.00

    Further images

    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) HISTORIC PERIOD INUIT ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC, Whistle, 1935 or earlier
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) HISTORIC PERIOD INUIT ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC, Whistle, 1935 or earlier
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) HISTORIC PERIOD INUIT ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC, Whistle, 1935 or earlier
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) HISTORIC PERIOD INUIT ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC, Whistle, 1935 or earlier
    • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) HISTORIC PERIOD INUIT ARTIST, EASTERN CANADIAN ARCTIC, Whistle, 1935 or earlier
    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...
    Read more

    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


    References: For examples of model totem poles by the artist 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. 4, p. 25, and cats. 153-157, pp. 157-158.
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    Provenance

    Private Collection, New York, NY.
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FIRST ARTS PREMIERS INC.  
Nadine Di Monte   |    647-286-5012   |    info@firstarts.ca 

Ingo Hessel  |    613-818-2100   |    ingo@firstarts.ca

The main office of First Arts Premiers Inc. is located on the ancestral and traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat, the original owners and custodians of this land.  Today, it is home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.

 

 

 

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