George Nelson was an accomplished Quatsino First Nation carver, perhaps best known for the Seal Lion house posts now in the collection of the UBC Museum of Anthropology (A50009 a-f). A prolific maker of model totem poles and other objects made for sale, Nelson was also an important collaborator and source of information for American anthropologist Edward Malin (b. 1923) during the latter’s graduate research in the 1950s. Several photos of Nelson working on a mask from this period were published in Malin’s book A World of Faces: Masks of the Northwest Coast Indians (1978).

Nelson also made decorated cedar blanket chests that feature model poles and incised and painted images of crests and supernatural beings, such as the one being offered here. Along with ‘Namgis artist Arthur Shaugnessy (1884-1945), Nelson was one of a just a few Kwakwaka’wakw artists making this sort of work in the first half of the 20th century. This large example dates to the 1930s or 1940s and features a pair of model poles on each front corner. Both poles depict a thunderbird over a bear eating a copper and are diagnostic examples of Nelson’s carving and painting style. The incised and painted thunderbirds on this chest are highlighted by a striking white ground paint and feature the dashes, crosshatching, and intricate formline that characterizes Nelson’s two-dimensional design work. There is a very similar, but smaller, chest by Nelson in the collection of the Museum of Vancouver (catalogue number AA 2381).

Christopher W. Smith