Sold for: $7,020

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Toronto
Sold sale of Fine Canadian Art, Heffel Fine Art Auction House, May 15, 2013, lot 102

LITERATURE
Maria Tippett, Emily Carr, A Biography, 1979, page 136

Emily Carr signed her ceramic works Klee Wyck, meaning “Laughing One”, a name given to her by West Coast First Nations people. She was involved in all the stages of making her ceramic objects, which included candlesticks, lamp bases, totems and vessels. She dug blue clay from the Dallas Road cliffs, bringing it home in her wicker pram. After molding her objects by hand, she fired them in her homemade backyard kiln. Each firing of this primitive kiln required Carr’s oversight for 12 to 14 hours, and she declared it caused her much “agony, suspense, sweat”. Finally, native designs were applied to the work with enamel paint. In this colourful ceramic piece, Carr inventively painted her dogfish motif into the curve of the bowl as though it is coiled up in its sea environment.

As well as selling her work in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and Banff, Carr found a market in Eastern Canada – at a craft sale in Toronto, the Château Laurier in Ottawa and the Canadian Handicraft Guild in Montreal.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars