Kim Jarand
Specialist, Head of Sale
Lot 82W
A monumental Rufus Moody argillite totem pole, 1973
24 April 2025, 11:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$19,200 inc. premium
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Rufus Moody, C.M.
Haida, (1923-1998), Untitled, 1973, a carved argillite model totem pole of monumental scale and mass, composed of seven sections, with high-stepped plinth surmounted by a series of totemic creatures, birds, sea mammals and human figures, the whole with carved and incised details in various stages of relief, inset eyes and accents, on a custom wood base, areas of stabilization or restoration.
height 80in
height 80in
Footnotes
Provenance
A Canadian Private Collection, sold at Sotheby's Fine American Indian Art, New York, Sale 7066, December 4, 1997, lot 330
The Locksley Shea Collections, acquired at the above
The Sotheby's catalog entry for the lot states: "Commissioned by the present owner in 1972 and reported to be the largest 'free standing' argillite pole ever carved."
Rufus Moody came from a long line of noted argillite carvers, including his father Arthur Moody (1885-1967) and step-grandfather Thomas Moody (d. 1947). Moody mined the argillite for his work himself on Native reserve land near his birthplace of Skidegate. Dedicating himself full-time to carving by the late 1950s, Moody began to create large works in argillite, examples of which can be found in the collections of both the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and the Haida Gwaii Museum in Skidegate. For a discussion of this family of multigenerational argillite carvers "(having) probably contributed a greater volume of argillite than any three generations in a single family," see Drew, Leslie and Wilson, Douglas, Argillite, Art of the Haida, 1980, Hancock House, North Vancouver, B.C., p.254
