Ridley was a skilled Haida artisan who made a variety of model-scaled objects, including model dugout canoes. This model exhibits the classic form of a full-sized Haida dugout canoe, with the extended prow and stern both raised, giving the canoe’s profile curvilinear tension. While Ridley certainly created more model poles, there are a few of his model canoes known, including a nearly identical signed example in the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture (2017-113/9), a likely Ridley canoe model with paddles in the American Museum of Natural History (16.1/1160 ABC), and a previously unidentified Ridley model canoe sold by First Arts [1]. This canoe features a formline design that is somewhat difficult to interpret, perhaps Waasgo, painted in red, blue, and black natural pigments.

Steamed and carved dugout canoes were central to the livelihoods of Northwest Coast peoples, allowing them to travel great distances and fish up and down the coast, from the Gulf of Alaska to California and beyond. Over the last several decades, there has been a growing interest in reviving the creation and use of full-sized canoes, and models such as this one have played a role as teaching tools in the creation of new vessels.

1. See First Arts, 13 July 2021, Lot 100.

Christopher W. Smith