CHARLIE JAMES (YAKUDLAS) (1867-1937 or 1938) KWAKWA̱KA̱ʼWAKW
Wolf Form Feast Bowl, c. 1900
carved and painted cedar wood, 4.25 x 12.5 x 4.25 in (10.8 x 31.8 x 10.8 cm)
unsigned.

Provenance
Private Collection, Calgary, AB.

Kwakwaka'wakw potlatches include times of feasting, serving meals to the guests on behalf of the sponsoring family. Today modern serving bowls of plastic or stainless steel dominate these events, but in the past the sponsors would commission sculptured food bowls, sometimes of great size, carved to represent the crests of the family. This small bowl is of a size for individual use but made in the proportions of a much larger vessel. In this case a wolf is the general form of the bowl, its body hollowed out to create the volume of the bowl. The extension of the head and neck forward and upward lends a dynamic look to the sculpture, balanced by the tail that curls back and around to meet the bottom of the bowl. Short legs and feet raise the bowl off the floor and add to the liveliness of the image. The surface of the wolf/bowl features painted designs in traditional Kwakwaka'wakw style using black, red, and green paints. The features of the head and body are not relief carved, with only paint to define the eyes, eye sockets, nostrils, legs, and other parts of the sculpture. Bowls of this kind would be employed to serve smoked or dried salmon, shellfish, seaweed, and other traditional foods.

Steven C. Brown

References: For a very similar bowl by the artist see Ronald W. Hawker, Yakuglas’ Legacy: The Art and Times of Charlie James, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), fig. 5.15, p. 177; for a related drawing by the artist see ibid., fig. 5.14, p. 176.