Antiques | Appraise It

19th Century Walking Stick

In the collecting world of walking sticks, the varieties of forms and functions are classified in three types: decorative, folk art, and system. While the distinctions can be vague, they provide a good foundation for categorizing the thousands of canes that have been produced over the past several hundred years.

Decorative walking sticks, as the name implies, are a fashion accessory. The variety of materials and forms of these decorative canes was limited only by the imagination of highly trained artisans. Folk art sticks, by definition, often were made by untrained artisans. They were an expression of the artist’s skill and personality. And then there is the system stick. This category of canes is highly collectible. They have a dual or hidden purpose, occupational and recreational, such as a weapon, a musical instrument, a whiskey flask and glass, or a physician’s stick containing scalpels and syringes. More than 1500 patents for gadget canes were applied for during the 18th and 19th centuries. They were more utilitarian, used in much the same way as we use a purse or wallet today and usually not as beautifully embellished as decorative canes. Many have been discarded over the years after they fell from fashion in the 1920s.

With its color-enhanced horn handle, it is my opinion this would be defined as a late-19th-century decorative stick made for the common market. Based on the materials, the bamboo shaft (a less-formal wood) and the painted tin ferrule, I would place the value of this walking stick at $400 to $600. While canes are rarely offered at the top six international auction houses—and when they are, they are typically Fabergé, Tiffany or nautical folk art—there does exist an extremely active and aggressive retail market and many collectors’ clubs.

Like any area of collecting there are certain related terms that bear explanation when discussing the anatomy of a stick. The first is the handle; secondly, the shaft, and, when the shaft and the handle are made of different materials, they are often held together by a band or collar. Finally there is the ferrule, the termination that protects the end of the cane.

Balleste Art Deco Period Lady Spherelight, circa 1920

This Art Deco “Spherelight” lamp belongs to the golden age of the ‘20s and ‘30s. The very term “Art Deco” conjures up an image of luxury and decadence. It is signed on the foot by Enrique Molins-Balleste. Original vintage works were signed as Molins or Balleste. These lamps were marketed as affordable quality decorative lighting.

Balleste was born in Barcelona and worked as an artist in Paris. He was most noted for his theatrical and genre groups and figural lighting. In this “offering” pose, the graceful dancer holds an original crackalure-glass globe shade. The figure is cast in spelter, with a cold-painted, polychromed surface. Considering she was created in the 1920s to 1930s, the surface appears to be in great condition. The polished Italian marble or alabaster plinth is also a standard of the period.

I would place this lamp’s replacement value at $1800 to $2000.

TERM OF THE MONTH

SPELTER is an inexpensive metal alloy of zinc, lead and tin with a surface color applied to imitate bronze. If the underneath color is warm yellow, it is bronze; if the color is cool gray, it is spelter. Spelter figures are hollow, and weight is added by a plaster filling covered with felt across the bottom. Also, unlike bronze, spelter is never cold to the touch.

Gods’ Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, 1st Edition

This stunning volume’s artwork employs aspects of Art Deco and Expressionism styles. American author, Lynd Kendall Ward (1905-1985) was a prize-winning engraver, lithographer, and illustrator. Ward studied in the U.S. and Germany, where he was taught the art of wood engraving and was exposed to other artists that were exploring the limits of storytelling with pictures and no words. Upon his return to the U.S., Ward produced his concept of a wordless novel with the evocative, pictorial “woodcut” narrative, Gods’ Man in November of 1929.

Autobiographical in nature, the 139 engravings recount Ward’s struggles with his craft and with life in the 1920s entirely in visual terms. The intricate woodcuts transcend all barriers of language. Despite having been released the week of the stock market crash, Gods’ Man sold quite well and went to a third printing by January of 1930. Over the next eight years Ward produced five additional novels in woodcuts, Mad Man’s Drum, Wild Pilgrimage, Prelude to a Million Years, Song Without Words, and Vertigo. This volume appears to be in “fine” condition, fetching $300 to $500 on a retail market.

The importance of condition in book collecting cannot be overemphasized. Copies in exceptional condition are at a premium, and the oft-repeated adage is that a collector should buy the best possible copy that he or she can afford.

This means no substantial wear: chipping, fading, darkening, staining, mildew and tears. However, please keep in mind everything is based on the particular title, its printing history, and its scarcity. A very modern, signed first edition might be obtainable in “mint” condition, but a mid-19th-century narrative has probably not survived without at least some foxing, wear or repair to the binding.

Tennessee Chair

This handsome side chair is a Tennessee treasure, the work of Richard “Dick” Poynor (1802-1882), a freeman from Williamson County who is the best-known 19th-century African American furniture maker in Tennessee.

Poynor was born a slave in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1802. He migrated to Williamson County, Tennessee, in 1816 with the Robert Poynor family. Dick Poynor obtained his freedom, and by 1851 he acquired his own 150-acre farm off Pinewood Road in western Williamson County, where he produced hundreds of chairs in his horse-powered chair factory. His chairs were made of maple and hickory, and his trademark tight construction was achieved by driving dry rungs into green posts, thus eliminating the need for nails or glue. Other classic signatures of Poynor’s work are the arching “mule-eared” posts secured at the top slat by a single wooden peg and the distinctive turning seen on the front posts.

Since moving to Tennessee, I have discovered similar examples of Poynor’s chairs for as little as $20. Armed with the knowledge of the form and their “signatures,” these highly prized chairs can still be discovered.

With this chair’s wonderful surface and bulletproof attribution, it could easily achieve $300 to $400.

Linda Dyer serves as an appraiser, broker, and consultant in the field of antiques and fine art. She has appeared on the PBS production Antiques Roadshow since season one, which aired in 1997, as an appraiser of Tribal Arts.

If you would like Linda to appraise one of your antiques, please send a clear, detailed image to antiques@nashvilleartsmagazine.com. Or send photographs to Antiques, Nashville Arts Magazine, 644 West Iris Dr., Nashville, TN 37204.