Sold for: $18,720

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Peter L. Macnair and Alan L. Hoover, The Magic Leaves: A History of Haida Argillite Carving, 2002, page 27, similar Haida-motif panel pipes reproduced page 27, figure 15 and page 36, figure 33

Panel pipes such as this intricate carving are not meant to be functional – there is no bowl for smoking, only a small hole drilled at the top of the central animal figure. Typical of these works, the format here is long and horizontal and features a group of entwined animals from the Haida bestiary. They clasp each other and are also linked with the classic device of an extended tongue, as seen here with the raven figure. The earliest well-documented panel pipes date to the early 1830s, and as historians Peter Macnair and Alan Hoover comment, “this form remained entrenched throughout the decade of 1830.” Fine carvings such as this show the ability of the Haida to carve complex sculptural works that, although presented in a slender, flattened format, show their sophisticated awareness of three-dimensional space. The animal forms are full of tension and power, and they carry the message of how all these creatures were connected in their world. Specimens of this type of pipe are present in museum collections that range from the British Museum to the UBC Museum of Anthropology.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars