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Narrative

This is a model-size pole, sold as a souvenir by the 'Scenery Shop' in Vancouver. The original pole that inspired it—a 3-metre-high Kwakwaka’wakw interior house post—became well known in the first half of the 20th century, as it was pictured on many postcards and tourist brochures of the day, and replicated by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people as items for sale on the tourist market. The original was one of a pair carved by Charlie James (Yakudlas) in the early 1900s; the posts were meant for a chief’s house in Kingcome Inlet that was never built. They were rented out for the Edward Curtis film "The Land of the Head-Hunters" (1914), and in 1922 they were purchased for display in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Today a replica of one of the pair, carved by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Tony Hunt and assistants, still stands in Stanley Park; the original is in storage at the Museum of Vancouver. Because this style of pole was so popular with the public, there were numerous carvers who made copies of it, in different sizes. There has been discussion as to whether some of the replicas were commissioned from Coast Salish artists (i.e., rather than Kwakwaka’wakw artists); however, it appears that this particular model was commissioned from and carved by Japanese artisans out of Japanese cedar wood. There was a significant industry of such replica carving in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. Their work was sold at the Scenery Shop in Vancouver as well as the Old Curiosity shop in Seattle, among other outlets. The back of the MOA pole has a label attached to it from the Scenery Shop. There are two very similar model poles in the collection of the Museum of Vancouver (MOV AA1765 & AA1769), also purchased at the Scenery Shop. (The shop was owned by William L. Webber, operating in downtown Vancouver, on Granville Street, c. 1923 to 1952.)

Description

Kwakwaka'wakw style model pole (replica?). Figures are a grizzly bear holding a human below, with a thunderbird with outstretched wings on top. Colours used are black, red and white. Paper labels adhered to back.