Wilson Williams was from the second generation of Williams Family artists to carve model poles and masks for the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle. Along with his father, Sam (1884-1979), and brother, Ray (c. 1933-1988), Wilson created intricate model poles, bookends, ashtrays, and masks that were sold throughout the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Although his work is immediately recognizable as belonging to the Williams family, Wilson developed his own carving style with distinctively large, orbed eyes, flared nostrils, and wide, saw-like teeth.

Wilson specialized in highly pierced model poles that often-featured Romanesque thunderbirds, mosquitos, frogs, wolves, and killer whales with extensive openwork. This is a fine, elegant example of that type of pole. The top figure is a mosquito with a long proboscis and human face carved on its chest. The middle figure is a fierce-looking, four-legged creature with anthropomorphic facial features that may represent a wolf. [1] The bottom figure is an inverted killer whale with long, exaggerated flukes that drape down to the head and a dorsal fin that emerges midway between the flukes. Like the middle figure, the killer whale is also depicted with human-like facial features. As was common in the 1960s, this pole is unpainted with engraved features delineating forms. The base has been chip-carved around the rim, an interesting nod to a folk-art style of carving popularized by fellow Nuu-chah-nulth carver Jimmy John (Mowachaht/Muchalaht, 1876-1988).

1. The identity of this figure is visually ambiguous, but later Williams family artists have identified these four-legged creatures as wolves on their poles.