CAPTAIN ANDREW BROWN (1879-1962) HAIDA
Model Totem Pole, c. 1920
argillite, 6 x 1.5 x 1.5 in (15.2 x 3.8 x 3.8 cm)
unsigned.

Provenance
Private Collection, Vancouver;
A Vancouver Collection.

Although unsigned, the iconography and style are unmistakably by the hand of Captain Andrew Brown. A prolific maker, Brown was a friend and informant to Canadian anthropologist Marius Barbeau, who called him “one of a small group of craftsmen who came under the then prevailing influence of Charlie Edensaw [sic]” [1]. This pole depicts Raven with a sun or moon in his beak over an anthropomorphic figure that Barbeau identified as “Raven after he has lost his beak” [2]. Barbeau published a very similar pole in his book Haida Carvers in Argillite (1957, pl. 220) and comparable pieces by Brown can be found in the collections of several major Canadian museums including the UBC Museum of Anthropology and the Museum of Vancouver.

1. Marius Barbeau, Haida Carvers in Argillite, (Ottawa: Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources / National Museum of Canada, 1957; repr. 1974), p. 203.
2. Loc. cit.

Christopher W. Smith

References: For the section on Captain Andrew Brown see Marius Barbeau, Haida Carvers in Argillite, (Ottawa: Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources / National Museum of Canada, 1957), pp. 203-209. For a brief discussion of the artist see Leslie Drew and Douglas Wilson, Argillite: Art of the Haida, (North Vancouver: Hancock House, 1980), pp. 246-249. See also First Arts, Toronto, 12 July 2020, Lot 52. See also First Arts, Toronto, 14 June 2022, Lot 55.