A visual history of walking sticks and canes

Abstract

A comprehensive study of walking canes from around the world, dating from the distant past to the modern-day. The book presents a historical context on both practical and ceremonial usage.

Contents

The jewels in the crown: highlights from the A&D collection. Canes with provenance ; Presentation walking canes ; Conrad in Cardiff: a friend of Joseph Korzeniowski known as Joseph Conrad -- Cane classifications. Classifying a cane ; Country cane ; City (or court) canes ; Professional canes ; Medical canes ; Cheroot cannon canes ; Greek olivewood canes ; Spanish Makhila canes ; Watch canes : Squirter canes ; Defence canes ; Decorative, dress and fashion canes ; System and gadget canes ; Torch canes ; The automation canes ; Glove-holding canes ; Sabbath or Sunday golf canes ; Musical canes ; Writing and drawing canes ; Folk art or art popular, canes ; Cultural character canes ; Children's umbrellas and canes for little people ; Salemen's samples -- Cane handle motifs. Mythological creatures ; Creatures of the forest and savannah ; Creatures of the Earth, sea and sky ; Fictional characters ; Fruit ; Flowers ; Hands ; Erotic, or risqué, canes ; Bells and whistles ; Politics, war and the monarchy -- The anatomy of the cane. The evolution of the cane handle ; A guide to handle types and shapes ; Walking stick shafts ; Collars or bands ; Eyelets ; Swivels and clevises ; Ferrules -- From the dawn of time to twentieth-century sophistication. Early man and the use of primitive wooden tools ; Ancient societies, city-states, and empires ; The far Eastern cultures ; Pilgrims and the crusades ; Symbolic pageantry into the middle ages: the status emblem ; The age of elegance in Europe ; English canes from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries ; Walking canes during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; Walking canes during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries ; Walking canes in the eighteenth century ; The dandy and the British age of elegance ; French Protestants in London from the seventeenth to the early eighteenth centuries ; The art of strolling and luxury shopping in eighteenth century England ; Memento mori ; The new world: America ; Oriental trade: China, Japan and India ; Art nouveau canes, 1880-1915 ; Art deco canes, 1910-1939 ; The structure of art deco ; Great innovators of 1920s fashion -- The umbrella and the parasol. Ancient China ; Ancient Egypt ; Ancient Greece ; Assyria ; Ancient Rome ; Ancient India and Burma ; Siam ; The umbrella comes to Europe ; Parasols and umbrellas in nineteenth-century London ; The ultimate gadget cane, 1900-1924 ; Umbrellas and parasols before 1900 -- Contemporary walking canes: alive and popular today. Keith Cowie ; The country cane today ; Fashion canes today ; Brooks Brothers, USA ; The world of fashion -- Cane handles: common and exotic materials. Ivory ; Precious stones ; Porcelain ; Glass ; Other materials from nature ; Metals ; Synthetic materials ; Techniques.