Haida Argillite Plate
Hand carved argillite plate, featuring circular geometric elements interwoven with floral components, and inscribed ‘12” ½ HBC’. circa 1850.
Provenance: James R. (Jim) Houston Estate
Size: 12 ¾ h x 12 ¾ w x 1 ½ d in
The front has a band of half rosettes alternating with crossed-hatched rosettes and a circle of flowers, around a central cross-hatched rosette. The back is decorated in a very accomplished manner also with circular and floral motifs.
Design incorporates a solid circle with radiating spokes decorated with crosshatching and flowers. Inspiration could be paddle-wheels of the Hudson’s Bay Company ship Beaver. Another suggestion is that the half-circular designs bear a clear resemblance to sunburst patterns featured in late Georgian furniture and tablewear which could have been part of a ship’s outfit. Hudson’s Bay Company employees were instrumental in collecting argillite and shipping it to friends and institutions abroad.
ZP19747