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Artworks
RAYMOND “RAY” WILLIAMS (1933-1988), DITIDAHT/NUU-CHAH-NULTH
Model Hollowback Totem Pole, c. 1950swood and paint, 33 x 6.75 x 6.25 in (83.8 x 17.1 x 15.9 cm)
unsigned;
stamped in black ink on verso, "GENUINE / INDIAN MADE".LOT 115
ESTIMATE: $1,800 — $2,800Further images
Raymond “Ray” Williams was perhaps the most prominent 20th century member of the Williams family of Ditidaht / Nuu-chah-nulth carvers who worked for the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle,...Raymond “Ray” Williams was perhaps the most prominent 20th century member of the Williams family of Ditidaht / Nuu-chah-nulth carvers who worked for the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle, Washington. The son of Sam Williams (1884-1979) and father of current patriarch, Rick Williams (b. 1955), Ray innovated many of the idiosyncratic features that are today associated with the Williams family of carvers: a mix of customary Nuu-chah-nulth styles and Northern forms, with a healthy dose of imagination and huge, white-painted teeth.
This large model pole features, from the top: a Wolf holding a Human, a Human with a Frog emerging from its mouth, a Killer Whale, and a Raven with a Frog emerging from its chest. This is an earlier example of Ray’s work and features his busier, more complex painting style, with dots, dashes, stippling, u-forms, sharp v-cuts, and deeply carved figures. The pole is painted in bright red, green, yellow, orange, blue, and black.
Christopher W. Smith
Provenance
Private Collection, NY
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