Lot 51
CHARLIE JAMES (YAKUDLAS), (1865-1961) KWAKWA̱KA̱ʼWAKW
Model Totem Pole, c. 1932-36
cedar wood and pigment, 14 x 7.25 x 3.75 in (35.6 x 18.4 x 9.5 cm)
signed, "CHARLIE / JAMES".

Provenance
Ingram Gallery, Toronto;
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Toronto.

Charlie James was an influential artist who created objects for both community usage and the art market. He was one of the earliest Indigenous artists to consistently sign his work and was instrumental in popularizing model totem poles in the early 20th century. James was the stepfather of Mungo Martin and grandfather of Ellen Neel, both of whom were taught by James and went on to become renowned artists in their lifetimes. James also taught carving and painting to children at the St. Michael Indian Residential School in Alert Bay, BC, during the 1920s [1] and sold carvings and other items through William Webber’s The Thunderbird / Scenery Shop on Granville Street in the last several years of his life. [2] Webber was a dedicated patron of James and his art, selling a large selection of his original pieces and even using James’ thunderbird design as the logo for the shop. [3] Through his association with Webber, James’ designs appeared on enamel pins, pennants, money clips, and other ephemera sold through the store. Webber’s collection of objects, including many pieces by James, are now housed in the Museum of Vancouver.

This model pole features a Kolus (Young Thunderbird) over a diving Killer Whale with an anthropomorphized dorsal fin. The pole reflects James’ painterly style and fondness for quick, busy lines to create his trademark feather textures on the bird figure, its wings, and the killer whale face design on its chest. The Killer Whale figure on the bottom is depicted in a diving pose with the tail curling down into the back of the pole and the pectoral fins stretched down towards the handmade base. The Killer Whale is composed of two and three-dimensional elements which James has deployed in order to take advantage of a natural crook in the wood that enhances the sinuous lines of the Killer Whale and breaks what would be the bilateral symmetry of the pole. The pole is signed on the base verso, but the signature lacks the black frame that James would usually paint around it, likely indicating that this is an earlier piece by him. There is a very similar example illustrated in Plate 31 on page 22 of The Totem Carvers: Charlie James, Ellen Neel, and Mungo Martin (1982) [4].

1. Jacknis, Ira. 2002. The Storage Box of Tradition: Kwakiutl Art, Anthropologists, and Museums, 1881-1981. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 285.
2. Nuytten, Phil. 1982. The Totem Carvers: Charlie James, Ellen Neel, and Mungo Martin. Vancouver: Panorama Publications, 31-32.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid, 22.

Christopher W. Smith