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Artworks
UNIDENTIFIED MAKAH or NUU-CHAH-NULTH ARTIST
Model Totem Pole, c. 1910wood and paint, 26.5 x 4.75 x 5 in (67.3 x 12.1 x 12.7 cm)
unsigned;
with partial label, torn, "HUDSO[N?, torn] / BAY FU[R?, torn] / CO., INC / SEATTLE / WASH".
LOT 132
ESTIMATE: $1,500 — $2,500Further images
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This model pole was originally sold through the Hudson Bay Fur Company, an early curio and fur trading company based in Seattle around the turn of the 20th century. Interestingly,...This model pole was originally sold through the Hudson Bay Fur Company, an early curio and fur trading company based in Seattle around the turn of the 20th century. Interestingly, there was no relationship between this company and the historic Canadian company of the same name; instead, the Seattle Hudson Bay Fur Company appears to have been a neighbor and direct competitor of the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop (YOCS). Objects from the Hudson Bay Fur Co. are less common than YOCS poles, as it was open for a much shorter period of time.
This pole shares a number of features with model poles from the Makah tribe of Neah Bay. It could also be by a Nuu-chah-nulth artist from nearby Vancouver Island. It is carved in red cedar and features, from the top: a Raptor (perhaps an Eagle), a Humanoid Mask, a Frog, and a Mallard Duck. It is painted in bright blue, brown, orange, white, green, yellow, red, and black.
Christopher W. Smith
Provenance
With The Hudson Bay Fur Company, Seattle, WA;Private Collection, NY.
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