At the beginning of the twentieth century, no man of quality would have been seen without a walking stick any more than he would have been without a hat. The practice continued among well-dressed men until it virtually disappeared in the 1970s. Today, as you know, hats are rare and the walking stick virtually extinct on the street.
Classic cane styles include crooked Malacca for city day wear, ivory trimmed ebony for evening and knobbed blackthorn for the country. Those are the three that I have currently, and I hope to find examples of bamboo and one or two others eventually. Great versions of anything are difficult to find but canes are readily available at antique dealers and on eBay, and should be collected in advance of need. When one can no longer walk unaided it is rather late to begin shopping.
Of course, it is a brave man that carries a stick when healthy, though they can serve to give the disapproving a good thrashing. For self-defense was the secondary function of the cane after swords were banned in most jurisdictions (wielders should review the Beginners Guide to Using the Cane and related publications). But all it takes is a convincing limp to warrant carrying one.
A stick is just dandy. If you've twisted your ankle.
Friday, July 30, 2010
A Stick is Just Dandy
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8 comments:
The last word on sticks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeN7fZE7EPo
Will,
The French have/ had a martial art called Savate, a key component of which is fighting with a cane (so as to allow the boulevardier to defend himself from street thugs).
How French....
I began collecting sticks a little over 35 years ago never dreaming they would offer anything other than adornment. Time has proved me wrong. And while I too find that antique sticks are sometimes works of art, a caution, some antique sticks have shafts so dried out that they have become too fragile to serve as support.
"An essential accessory, to the well-dressed man in the nineteenth century, was the cane or walking stick. Doubtless it originated from the riding whip. My grandfather and father would not have dreamt of going out without carrying one of these elegant weapons, surmounted by gold or tortoise-shell knob or handles, of which they both had large collections, while my grandmother and my mother and their contemporaries carried parasols. Gentlemen had special canes for the evening, some of them sheathing light swords for self-defence when walking home late at night".
- Duke of Windsor: Windsor Revisited.
b
Sherlock Holmes practised 'Baritsu'. Some have suggested Doyle was referring to 'Bartitsu'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartitsu
Uh, DID you twist your ankle, Will?
A classic London-based maker or walking sticks and umbrellas:
http://www.james-smith.co.uk/index.cfm
My alma mater gives each of its graduates his/her own class cane on graduation day. Great tradition, and I look forward to using it.
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