Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, New York, USA

Note:

The present pole is a large and detailed model of the Alert Bay house portal pole of Kwakwaka'wakw Chief Wakius, of Owikeno and Nimpkisk descent. Erected in 1899, the full scale Wakius pole was carved by the eminent artist Yuxwayu, about whom very little is known. One of the most sculpturally elaborate poles to come from the central coast region, the work drew the attention of painter Emily Carr during her 1912 visit to Alert Bay. Carr documented the portal pole in her painting Thunderbird of Wawkyas, Alert Bay, British Columbia Archives Coll. No. PDP02157.

Figures on the pole proclaim the hereditary rights of Chief Wakius referring to stories of human beings’ acquisition of the dances, songs and masks pertaining to the mythical ancestor of Wakius, Wise One, and his sons’ defeat of Cannibal-at-the-Noth-End-of-the-World (See the 35th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology [1913-14, Part 2, pp. 1222-1248] for Tlingit-Kwakwaka'wakw ethnologist George Hunt’s recounting of the lengthy legend.)

Figures represented on the Wakius pole include Thunderbird, Lord of the Upper World, then Fin Whale or Killer Whale, Lord of the Undersea World, then Wolf, then Wise One, a human figure, then the mythical Cannibal Bird, a consort of Cannibal-at-the-North-End-of-the-World, then Bear, and below, Raven.

While the masterful carver of the full scale Wakius pole is identified as Yuxwayu, the maker of the present exceptional model pole is not currently known.

“Grand Hall Tour Central Coast House”, Canadian Museum of History, https://www.warmuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/grand/ghhe4eng.html
Marius Barbeau, Totem Poles, Vol. II (Ottawa: Dept. of Northern Affairs and National Resources, National Museum of Canada, 1964), 680-681.
“Totem Pole Model Heiltsuk ca. 1900”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/319080

The present lot is one of six model totem poles in the current auction from an important upstate New York collection. Poles in this collection are united by their rarity, large scale, age, and original unrestored surfaces.

The collection was acquired privately from collectors and dealers over thirty years of focused pursuit. Acquisitions were driven by a passion for hand made objects and their connection to the land, a life-long interest in First Nations traditions, and meaningful ties of friendship and family the collector has with Canada. The six exceptional model totem poles in the collection represent a meaningful cross-section of the golden age of wooden model totem pole carving in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Related Work

Michael D. Hall, Pat Glascock, Carvings and Commerce, Model Totem Poles 1880-2010 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011), 117, pl. 93.