Vertical Art, the Enduring Beauty of Antique Canes and Walking Sticks
Photography by Umberto Barone
Text by Roberta Maneker
Forward by Wendell Garret
Concept and Design by Pierangelo Marengo and Piero Luigi Carboni
(Hudson Hills Press, 2008)
400 pages
26 x 36 cm
ISBN 13: 1978-1-55595-294-5
ISBN: 1-55595-294-1
Review
This exceptional book on antique canes and walking sticks dazzles the eyes with a spectacular collection of superb photographs. Published by Hudson Hill Press, the 400-page volume presents a collection of nearly 400 canes belonging to a single private collector.
The canes come from all around the world; however, most were created in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe. There are, for instance, Faberge canes with diamond inlays, Art Nouveau designs, ornate ivory carvings as well as more simple models with carved animal faces by folk craftsmen. Some even contain secret compartments. Whatever their origin, the canes are truly objects of art.
The photography and design of the book are magnificent, with each cane beautifully lit and generously displayed. Says photographer Umberto Barone: ”When I was young… I realized that I could see reality differently through my camera, and through pictures could communicate this different reality”. The book “Vertical Art “ illustrates this perfectly.
Bob Fresh
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’
…and a Partridge in a Pear Tree
This oil painting by Chris Buzelli is a truly inspirational interpretation of the well-known Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Middle English ‘pertriche’ (now partridge) was a derivation of Perdix, one of Athena’s Sacred Kings. Thrown into the billowing seas from a tower, his goddess carried him to heaven in the shape of a bird.
Perdix was the bird, Athena the pear tree. As such, she had been worshipped in Boeotia as Once, Mother of All Pear Trees. Perdix, the meaning of whose name was originally ‘The Lost One’, had been known as ‘Lord of the Pear Trees’ in his Holy City of Badrinath (Himalayas). Thus, the pear tree carried a masculine/feminine implication throughout Eurasia.
This imaginative work hints of the billowing sea, the glimpse of heaven, the curves of entwining arms of safety and the pear droplets of love’s tears. The passing lovers are dwarfed by the story and significance of the tree.
Peter Carl Fabergé (originally Carl Gustavovich Fabergé) the celebrated Russian court jeweller turned the humble egg into 69 magical works of art. His creations were many and fabulous. Here he blends the egg with the tree and makes enchanting allusion to the pinecone.
Donoyer Canes are turning their own mythical trees into works of fine art in the cane world. Their house tree is nestled into encircling petals, lotus in inspiration.
White, red or yellow gold, or platinum, the tree is protected by their cocoon, (the same metals or silver), which carefully presents a comfortable knob to hold as much as a work of art to wear. It too is masculine/feminine in implication – an accessory, an object of desire and beauty suitable for men and women alike.
You do not need to be a Tsar or a Tsarina to personalise your own tree. If you are Canadian and feeling very patriotic, you can have a maple tree in red gold and have it custom-dusted with diamonds and rubies to be true to your national colours. There is the majestic Lebanese cedar, the pine (Christmas) tree, with a powdering of diamond snow and moonstone or pearl pear droplets to recall the beauty of the above story or the joy of presenting a rare objet d’art at special moments of the calendar.
There is a new Palm Island in Dubai. Why not a palm tree encrusted with emeralds inside the lotus cocoon? The variations are endless.
For inspiration, go to the Dubai International Exhibition Centre to see Index Dubai 2008 and discover Donoyer canes at stand 2E255 (Hall 6) from 3-7th December.
Rare woods make up the cane itself. I illustrate snakewood and ebony.
Donoyer cane with African ebony shaft.
If you happen to be in Switzerland, you can find them in Geneva.
Donoyer cane with South American snakewood shaft.
Chronométrie Kunz SA
Rue du Mont-Blanc 1
1201 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel. (+41) 22 738 16 00
Fax (+41) 22 738 16 32
Monday to Friday:
9:30 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.
Saturday:
9:30 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is
more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles
the world.” –Albert Einstein
