Quelques portraits de dandys, précédé de Les cannes de M. Paul Bourget
Text by Eugène Marsan
(singulier, 2009)
70 pages
13 x 20 cm
ISBN 13: 978-2-9533467-0-1
Cane News’ Ringtone ?
Irving Berlin (1888 –1989) was one of the most prolific songwriters in Tin Pan Alley/Broadway’s history. One of the few to have written both music and lyrics for his many songs – these totaled almost a thousand.
Irving Berlin.
One such is a song entitled ‘My Walking Stick’. It is available to download free of charge and even as a ringtone for your mobile phone – a must for the cane aficionado!
(Verse)
Take away my high hats
Take away my favorite tie
Take away my white spats
I’ll still get by
But my walking stick
You simply must let that be
I mean you can’t take that away from me
(Refrain)
Without my walking stick, I’d go insane
Can’t look my best, I’d feel undressed without my cane
Must have my walking stick ’cause it may rain
And when it pours, can’t be outdoors without my cane
If I ever left my house without my walking stick
It would just be something I could never explain
The thing that makes me click on Lovers’ Lane
Would go for naught if I were caught without my cane
Thank you Irving! I don’t suppose you knew you were writing Cane News’ anthem, but I hope all our readers will download your song and the ring tone as a tribute to your good taste!
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire with Irving Berlin at The Piano.
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire Dancing.
For more about Fred Astair including a clip of his unsurpassable dancing with a cane, see our article ‘From The Screen to The Ritz’ in the Imagination section.
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
Press Release: Tradewinds conducts its spring all-cane auction
Peabody, Massachusetts
On May 2, 2009, Tradewinds Antiques held its semi-annual all-cane live auction at the Peabody Marriott Hotel, in Peabody, Massachusetts.  It was the thirty-fourth such event for AmericaÂ’s Premier Cane Auction House ™Â and it featured 197 carefully selected lots most of which were sold.
The leader of the sale was a rare California gold quartz cane that belonged to Congressional Representative Hotchkiss of Connecticut.  It fetched $10,350.
A scarce Remington large  dog head gun cane curio achieved $8,625, while a fine nautical with inlaid silver whales brought $6,900, as did an ivory and boxwood shogun.  An impressive “going ashore” nautical made $6,325 as did a 1692 English pique pomander, and a wonderful ivory full frog.
A great wood capped narwhal fetched $5,750 while a rare nautical with silver pique brought $5,463.
There were many other items in the $4,000, $3,000 and $2,000 levels and examples in all price ranges were sold.
The auction grossed  $234,859 and all prices quoted include a 15% buyers premium.
Tradewinds’ next event will be our mid-summer Online-Only Auction beginning on July 15, 2009
The next live auction will be October 3, 2009, at the Peabody Marriott in Peabody Mass.
Details of all events can be obtained by calling (978) 526-4085 or watching for postings on our website at www.tradewindsantiques.com.
(Note: The lots cited above were #2, #175, #95, #120, #15, #125, #160, #175, and #26.)
Boris Palatnik
Boris Palatnik – Boris Palatnik Art Studio
Boris Palatnik
It is always interesting to compare the different routes each of our spotlighted designers, artists, makers and personalities have chosen toward the world of the cane. Boris Palatnik was born in Saint Petersburg in 1950. With his Bachelor’s degree from the city’s Institute of Art in his pocket, he progressed to the Moscow Academy of Art to complete his Master’s degree in Sculpture. Palatnik then sculpted for the Artists Association of Russia becoming increasingly fascinated by and involved in miniature sculpture design.
Moving to the United States in 1989 he established his business within this specialised field. He also created cigar humidors and various desk accessories. After having participated in shows and exhibitions both inside the USA and internationally, Boris Palatnik was invited to create speciality designs for prestigious companies, organisations and enterprises such as Neiman Marcus, The Wall Street Journal, Boy Scouts of America, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and others such.
By the end of the 1990s, Palatnik had focused his energy on the design of walking sticks and canes. There is a large selection on his web site, which is well worth exploring. Interestingly, it informs the visitor that virtually all models of cane can be made as sword canes.
He works with cast metal using the wax loss technique, which enables him to devise and create sophisticated forms. As we have recently illustrated many canes featuring animals (at which Mr Palatnik is undoubtedly a master), I would like, this month, to focus on some of his handiwork with various foliage motifs.
‘Grapes’
‘Lily’
‘Frog’
‘Echo’
Somehow one feels these canes would look beautiful, at rest, inside a Charles Rennie Macintosh hallstand in a corner of the foyer of Victor Horta’s ‘Emile Tassel House’ in Brussels.
Main Ground Floor Stair Hall, The Emile Tassel House, Brussels.
Railings, ‘Maison du Peuple’
Victor, Baron Horta (1861 – 1947), the Belgium architect and designer, is often described as the most crucial Art nouveau founding architect. Indeed, The construction of his ‘Hôtel Tassel’ (1892-3), in Brussels, justifies his being credited as the first to have transposed the Art nouveau movement into architecture from the world of the decorative arts. There are many examples of his whiplash curve, which was taken up by his followers.
The railings from his ‘Maison du Peuple’, displayed at the Horta Metro station (North- South axis opened 1993) in the same city, can lead us to dream of the superlative Fabergé (Peter Carl Fabergé known as Carl Gustavovich Fabergé 1846 –1920), also a native of St Petersburg.
Fabergé Cane circa 1905.
Palatnik is modern, yet timeless with a flavour of Art nouveau in much of his portrayal of flora. His fauna is also fascinating to discover on his interesting website. Here is a sculptor – not an antique collector, an architect or a jeweller. The result is the rich diversity in the world of the cane: ours to enjoy and appreciate.
Horta: Foot of Main Stairwell, Maison du Peuple.
‘Saddle’
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