Sold for: $14,040

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Ontario
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 15, 2013, lot 101

LITERATURE
Gerta Moray, Unsettling Encounters, First Nations Imagery in the Art of Emily Carr, 2006, page 280, a circa 1924 – 1929 Beaver table lamp reproduced page 280, figure 11.5

During the period when Emily Carr was virtually not painting, one of the multitude of things she did to make a living was to produce pottery painted with native motifs. One of the most rewarding aspects for her in the process was in the researching of Haida motifs, from books such as John Swanton’s Ethnography of the Haida and museums such as the National Museum in Ottawa. Gerta Moray writes, “She transferred the two-dimensional designs used by the Haida on hats or on argillite plates to the surfaces of large ceramic bowls and platters, and she made lamp stands in the form of miniature totem posts of bears and beavers.” This is an outstanding beaver motif totem lamp base – the stylized beaver is quite animated, and its eyes have a great sense of presence. Carr’s identification with First Nations people was very strong during this period – she surrounded herself with her paintings of native villages and totems, and in her attic bedroom she painted two great bird forms from the ’Yalis cemetery, which she slept beneath. Carr stated, “They made ‘strong talk’ for me, as my Indian friends would say.”

All prices are in Canadian Dollars