A Northwest Coast art collection comes home, along with a jade Buddha
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2020 18:00:53 +0000
Jim Houston left Vancouver to retire in Palm Springs in 2003. But he took his Northwest Coast native art collection with him.
Houston owned several pieces by Bill Reid, including a Dogfish woman bronze that was originally designed for his famed Spirit of Haida Gwaii sculpture at the airport.
He owned an elegant Robert Davidson bronze inspired by the human faces carved on 19th century argillite pipes, and a handsome wooden sculpture of a killer whale by Davidson’s brother Reg.
Historic art included an argillite plate with geometric forms dating to the middle of the 19th century, a handwoven Haida spruce hat circa 1880 and a handwoven Tlingit “rattle top basket” from the same era.
Naturally he had several totems by artists like Don Yeomans, Tim Boyko and Doug Zilkie. The collection also includes works by well-known First Nations artists like Ellen Neel, Susan Point and Jay Simeon.
Houston passed away in 2018 and his family put his 11,000 sq. ft. home up for sale. Part of his estate was sold in Palm Springs, but Vancouver antique dealer Uno Langmann convinced his family to bring a lot of his art back to Vancouver.
It’s now on sale at Langmann’s store at 2117 Granville. Walking into the store Friday was like entering a private museum. A museum you can take home, if you have the funds — Reid’s Dogfish Woman is for sale for $425,000.
Bill Reid’s monumental sculpture Dogfish Woman is on the right, Reg Davidson’s Killer Whale is on the left and Tim Boyko’s Grizzly Bear, Frog and Salmon totem is in the middle/back.
One of the most impressive pieces isn’t Northwest Coast — it’s a five foot tall jade Buddha on a bronze lotus throne.
Langmann said Houston commissioned sculptor Lyle Sopel to carve the Buddha out of a 2,000 pound B.C. jade boulder. The sculpture took three years to complete, and the finished product is 780 pounds.
“It’s one of the largest jade sculptures in the world, as far as I know,” said Langmann.
The inspiration for Houston’s Buddha was the seven foot tall jade Buddha at the Wat Dhammamongkol temple in Thailand. Houston had it blessed by Buddhist monks when he unveiled it at his Palm Springs home in 2003.
The cost of the sculpture is $950,000.
“A piece of jade (that size) today would be a quarter of a million, just for a rough piece of jade,” said Langmann.
Houston was born in Walla Walla, Washington and graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Washington. After two years in the U.S. air force he relocated to Vancouver, where he lived for four decades.
“He was a big entrepreneur and philanthropist in Vancouver,” said Langmann.
Joanne Fink holds a handwoven Tlingit “rattle top basket” dating to 1880 from the Jim Houston collection.
Houston was successful in real estate, was an owner of the Rocky Mountaineer train and once owned the Red Robin restaurant chain. He was very involved in charities in both Vancouver and Palm Springs, where he had a second home for years before moving there full time.
Langmann said Houston designed his Palm Springs home around the art collection he had assembled in Vancouver. Some pieces were big — the red cedar totem designed by Yeomans is eight and a half feet tall — others small, including a stunning Jay Simeon 22 karat gold pendant inset with abalone inlay.
But they were all exquisite, and expensive. The Yeomans Raven and Frog totem is $45,000, and the Simeon pendant is $22,000. The Haida spruce hat is $28,000, the argillite plate is $15,000 and the Tlingit rattle top basket is $8,500.
Joanne Fink holds a handwoven Haida spruce hat dating to 1880 from the Jim Houston collection.
A Jay Simeon 22 karat gold pendant inset with abalone inlay from the Jim Houston collection.
A Bill Reid tie pin from the Jim Houston collection.
A Double Figure Feast Dish attributed to Rudolph Walton (Tlingit, Born 1867) from the Jim Houston collection.
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