Model Totem Pole

Item number A2227 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

This model totem pole features a humanoid frog figure over a beaver figure. The paint palette consists of burgundy and green, and the frog figure on top features dashing on the body. The beaver at the bottom has circular black eyes surrounded by a plain tapering oval outlined by black. It has a green area with black brows above the eyes, red nostrils, an open red mouth showing eight plain teeth and two front buck teeth. The body is black dashed red with a plain crosshatched tail curving upward and forward. The figure on top has similar facial features but no teeth and has a black dashed plain brown body. Nailed to a rectangular base.

Narrative

The burgundy and green palette, with a frog figure on the top and dashes on the body are favoured by Ridley (compare to A8515). The blocky style and execution of this pole also identify it as the work of Ridley, though this pole is cruder and not as well-executed as A8515 and A8132. This may indicate a production date from either much earlier or much later in Ridley’s career. The place the pole was made could be Haida Gwaii, or it could be Prince of Wales Island in Alaska? Ridley carved a full-scale totem pole in 1925 that was raised sometime between 1941 and 1945 in Thunderbird Park in Victoria.