Spotlight: Editorial
This month, instead of featuring one individual, we are going to take a brief look at a concept in luxury: the design of canes and umbrellas in and about two legendary cars in particular with a glimpse at a third.
Rolls Royce conjures up not only a car or an aircraft engine; it has become an epithet for the very best of design anywhere. One might say that James Smith & Sons are the ‘Rolls Royce’ of the umbrella – but Rolls Royce designers have some rather brilliant ideas of their own.
2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe Umbrella (Closed)
2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe Umbrella (Open)
On a day without blue skies, the client and h{er|is} passengers are well cared for. Rolls Royce offers many accessories as optional extras and, of course, they cater for clients’ specialised orders. A pity, in our opinion, that the boot umbrella option of a more classical style and form is not automatically accompanied by an elegant Rolls Royce walking stick. What a wasted opportunity!
Blue Rolls with Blue Skies
Anybody ordering such a car should have a cane in the boot. Naturally, the cane-seat for resting perched upon one’s land as others shoot one’s game, or from which one watches golf, is available on special order -but elegance should also be presented and is not listed.
When Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce met inside the bar of the Midland Hotel in Manchester (4th May 1904) it was surely one of the most fortuitously catalystic meetings ever. Rolls-Royce Limited was subsequently formed in 1906. Both were aristocrats and, as well we know, no stylish gentleman ever went out and about without his chic accessory at that time. It is indeed a disappointment that today’s luxurious car models do not carry a cane as well as an umbrella in situ as a matter of course.
A Rolls Royce ‘Spirit Of Ecstasy’ Walking Stick with ebonised cane. brass tip and decorative head (engraved with the RR symbol) mounted with a modern, silver-plated mascot was sold at auction in Great Britain in 1994. This was either made for an enthusiast or had belonged to a member of the families. It was never standard equipment as far as we are aware. We look forward to your valuable additions to our knowledge on this point.
The Midland Hotel, Manchester
The latest addition to Renaissance man Luca Bolognese’s work is his Jaguar Cane: Gaut Contemporary Canes. His is a rather exceptional web site, one he introduces by singing his own song about his creativity. Well, why not? With Luca, we can expect the extraordinary. There are links to his Facebook (complete with YouTube of his singing ‘Funky Gaut Design’) as well as his My Space. A million miles away from the Midland Hotel (metaphorically speaking), the British have always had an affection for and an appreciation of the eccentric. Signore Bolognese lives his inspirations. That’s not a bad thing to do. After all, Rolls and Royce are shining examples.
The Jag cane, he told me, was inspired by his adoration of the Jaguar MKll of the 1960s. The stick is hand beaten copper and the mascot, an aluminium fusion. The completed walking stick, once assembled, is then chromium plated. It has a rubber tip.
1963 Jaguar MKll Sedan
Gaut’s Jaguar Cane
The Cane’s Profile
There are so many accessories for the Jaguar available (cuff-links, badges, paper weights, key rings etc), as, indeed, there are for the Rolls Royce, that our Florentine maverick felt obliged to create his own Jaguar Cane.
There are others such on the market – more conservative, of course.
Model from AboutCanes.com / Jaguar Golf Umbrella from SNG Barratt – UK
Of course, one could argue that the sort of person who drives his own Aston Martin has his own cane stands full to bursting. That is very much the case with this gentleman!
Aston Martin with Cane Owner
Sadly, it is not so with the below, although he does boast other gadgets and gizmos.
Aston Martin with non-Cane Owner
