Collectable silver mounted walking sticks and canes
A walking stick was an integral part of every well dressed man's wardrobe in the nineteenth century, and his collection of walking-sticks were probably kept just inside the hall in a stand, sharing space with umbrellas.
Walking-sticks and canes derive from the cudgels and staves carried for defence, evolving into dress accessories topped with silver or ivory, with a ferrule at the point to cut down wear. Many had elaborately carved heads. Sometimes these unscrewed to reveal space for a snuff box or other article. About 200 ancillary accessories are known to have been incorporated into walking
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sticks, the best known being the sword. Sword sticks date back to the sixteenth century, and often the sword just slides out with the stick acting as a sheath. Other sword and knife designs had a spring mechanism and would release on the press of a button or lever.
Other sticks pull apart, revealing a dagger with a handle for the left hand, and a stick with a blade for the right hand. Two steel blades sliding into the shaft from each end probably represent duelling weapons. The poacher's gun was a simple weapon in the shape of a walking stick; more sophisticated was a six-barrelled revolver, exposed by pressure on a trigger-spring that expelled part of the cane, and which had a dagger in the centre of the barrels.
Most extravagant was the machine-gun in a rectangular cane. "The kit", as it was 'known, was a pocket violin; this was developed into a violin fitted into a cane with a two-inch (5cm) diameter. Other canes contained music-boxes, harmonicas, flutes, piccolos, pipes (including opium pipes), vesta boxes, cigarette holders, candles, battery torches (dating from as early as 1882), contraceptives, poison, and a whole tribe of canes known as working companions (scalpels for doctors, small spades for botanists, safety lamps for miners). Among the most curious is the voyeur's cane with a mirror above the ferrule enabling the user to look up women's skirts.
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Canes
From around 1550 to 1930, canes were a dressing accessory without which a lady or gentleman, properly dressed, would never leave the house. However their use went out of fashion after this, leaving the market to collectors.
For a collector, the main interest lies in the handle, which could be made of wood, bamboo, ebony, ivory, tusk, animal horn, or bone. Sometimes they were made out of porcelain, Bakelite, gold, silver, or glass; enameled or cloisonnéd; or sprinkled with precious gemstones. The height of good taste was a gold handle with minmal decoration, as silver handles were despised by
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the wealthier classes. However silver handled canes have survived in large numbers, and exhibit a wide variety of decorative treatment, from the comparatively plain, armorial or regimental style to the more flamboyant excesses of Art Nouveau.
Carved handles can be found depicting grotesque animal or human forms, and are highly prized nowadays. Also keenly sought are multi-purpose canes, with a concealed spirit flask, tobacco pipe or even a tiny fire-arm for personal safety.
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An Hermes of Paris leather riding crop, 1982 London, with maker's mark for Ra (silver ferrule), the fine plaited leather crop with punched and tooled detailing to the handle, with a sterling silver ferrule and an HermEs Paris stud to knop. Length 75 cm
A c.1900 Eastern silver and Malacca cane walking stick, possibly Chinese, the large silver knob handle embossed with rural village scene and figure, engraved 'Compliments of C & M October 1907', a belt with buckle mount below. Length 93 cm.
A collection of five silver and metal capped walking canes, first half 20th century, comprising two silver topped walking canes with scrolled decoration, London, 190, one London, 1929 by Henry Thomas & Co, and three other metal topped canes, the largest…
An American silver mounted walking stick, with carved bone lion's head handle, and engraved silver collar marked 'Empire Sterling', the shaft carved and stained to replicate crocodile skin, mid 20th century, length: 105 cm.
A 19th century walking stick, the wooden shaft with curved handle terminating in a silver parrots head decorated with oak leaves, a woven silver wire band to the shaft.
A fine walking stick with elephant head handle covered in snakeskin with glass eyes, ivory tusks and bound in silver, beautiful fiddleback timber shaft with brass and iron ferrule, 19th century, 90 cm high
A collection of five silver handled walking canes, 19th century and later, one decorated with two dog heads and a buckle, one of an owl, one marked London, 1909 by J Howell & Co and one marked London 1885, the longest 92 cm
An early Bakelite type short walking stick with ivorine handle, the tapering black shaft hand carved and terminating in an ivorine handle carved in the form of a turtle with rhinestone eyes, a tapering silver sleeve at the base of the shaft dated Chester…
A whalebone cane, the shaft with metal ferrule the top with four marine ivory discs and five horn discs, a small silver plate cartouche with dog to the front, handle absent. Provenance: The Flower Family Collection. Length 83 cm
Early Australian lady's silver topped walking cane silver topped cap of a woman's figure, with engraving: 'Park Street, Sydney' length 88 cm. No makers mark, inscribed T. Teleford Priora 48 & 50 Park St Sydney.
Three sterling silver topped walking canes, all with engraved decoration, hallmarked London 1901 maker WHR, Birmingham 1876 maker Sydney & Company, one unmarked, approx 80 cm to 90 cm long (3)
Russian silver and ebony walking stick, (84 zolotnik 875/1000 purity), with 5 silver and 4 yellow gold emblems attached to the rod, circa 1908 - 1926, 90 cm long approx
Sterling silver mounted walking stick, mark of C.S & Co., London, c. 1910, the engraved crook handle with grip cast as a clinging frog, height 85.5 cm. Provenance: The Estate of Judith Hoyle, Newcastle
An American walking stick, ebony shaft with silver collar and shield, rare pressed glass negro head handle with hand-painted finish, mid 19th century, 89 cm high
Whisky cane antique walking stick with concealed glass whisky tube and cork stopper, hidden under a silver cap, with ebonized shaft and brass ferrule, 19th century, 86 cm high
Australian Colonial silver walking stick handle, the finial modelled in the form of a standing kangaroo on a tuft of grass, set above a tapering handle engraved with Scottish thistle motifs within shaped borders, with faint letter engravings to collar,…
A collection of walking sticks and canes, including a silver mounted 'Bohemian Club Reward' walking stick, and specimens of fiddleblack blackwood and macassar ebony, comprising fifteen pieces, the longest 93 cm
An old horn walking stick, the shaft of sections of horn, silver collar and a horn curved handle, metal ferrule. Provenance: The Flower Family Collection. Length 94 cm
Antique Malacca walking stick with a sterling silver handle in the form of knarled wood, brass ferrule to bottom. Marked Birmingham, sterling, N? 80 cm high
An antique walking stick with unusual American sterling silver top, blackthorn shaft and brass ferrule, 19th century, inscribed 'Geo. Hartwell, Chicago, Ill.', 94 cm high
An early 1900s silver topped walking cane, the silver handle in the form of an Art Nouveau maiden with a berry vine entwined in her hair, length 80 cm.
A rare West Australian silver mounted carved casuarina wood (Sheoak) walking stick, by Joseph Dunkerton, working Fremantle c.1910. Both silver collars signed 'J.W.D.' with silver marks. Length 85.5 cm