Collectable silver mounted walking sticks and canes
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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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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Old Ivory cane with brass ferule and silver cap with early hand engraved initials. The cap has possibly been lacquered and there is some minor repairs to cane, approx 90 cm long
Two silver mounted walking canes, 19th century and later, one with a sterling silver top hallmarked Birmingham 1898, the other with a handle modelled as a silvered parrot, the longest cane 92 cm
Antique walking sticks. Carved blackwood & a metamorphic stick with silver plaque 'Presented To W.Pinnington Esq. By The Members, Portwood Working Men's Club On His Resigning Office As Hon. Treasurer Feb. 17th (18)96'. (2 items)
Early 20th century English silver handled walking stick, hallmarked, Birmingham, 1910, with hooked handle, and engraved with fine acanthus motifs, above slender stick, length 94 cm
A gentleman's walking cane with silver repousse top, engraved to the top 'D.A Rang Wala', with buckle band on shaft engraved 'ADE' in script. Silver is unmarked. Height 88 cm
Three walking canes, one with Indian silver mounts. One with engraved silver mounts, maker 'Kingston & Co', engraved 'Hal From Fred, Xmas '98'. One with engraved handle, hallmarked Birmingham 1885. Approx 84 cm, 97 cm & 102 cm long (3)
A silver mounted walking stick, previously belonging to Alfred Felton, dated 1903 the silver cap inscribed 'Alfred Felton, Esplanade, St Kilda, 1903', 86 cm length
A late Victorian walking stick, the ebonised shaft with 'fluted' marine ivory tusk handle, silver cap and collar, a presentation inscription to the cap, London 1898, length 91.5 cm
An Edwardian ivory handled and ebony walking stick, the mildly curved handle of good size, the engraved silver collar hallmarked Chester 1903. Length 91 cm
A silver topped walking stick, the mount foliate engraved and monogrammed 'Mfa', applied with a silver, 'Knot' and with ebonised shaft, maker Td, London 1925. Possibly Thomas Davis, stick maker in Avebury Street, Hoxton, London N. Length: 92 cm.
A Continental silver and porcelain mounted walking stick, the handle painted with flowers and heightened in gilt, engraved silver collar (unmarked), length: 86.5 cm.
An antique walking stick with carved boxwood animal head handle, set with glass eyes, mounted with silver finished collar above a fiddleback timber shaft with brass ferrule, 19th century, 87 cm high
An antique walking stick with carved ivory handle, sterling silver presentation collar, rosewood shaft with brass ferrule, early 20th century, 90 cm high
An antique Australian walking stick with silver top and shield, fiddleback blackwood shaft and brass ferrule, plaque engraved 'Presented to E. Goss by the Supporters of Hawthorn C.C. For best bowling in Final match, April 16th 1910', 83 cm high
A c.1900 ivory and silver handled malacca cane walking stick, the tapered handle with raised knobbly effect, scroll decorated silver band and cap end showing some distress. Hallmarked London 1891. Length 90 cm.
An antique walking stick with silver top inset with an antique Austrian silver coin dated 1780, beefwood shaft and brass ferrule, 19th century, a??a??a??a??a??a??85 cm high
An antique English walking stick with fiddleback timber shaft, sterling silver collar and carved horn dragons head handle with bone eyes, 19th century, 91 cm high
Victorian horn and sterling silver walking stick, the horn handle carved in the form of a horse hoof, with a sterling silver collar hallmarked 1871 and with engraved monogram to the shaft, length 83 cm
A Malacca and Anglo-Indian cane, the shaft terminating in a heavily embossed Indian silver handle. Length 93 cm. Provenance: The Flower Family Collection.
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
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.
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
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 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
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