Lady's walking stick with fist handle probably Eastern United States, circa 1850

whale ivory and whale bone with ink and metal.  Together with a pointer with swan handle, unidentified artist, 19th century, whale bone, whale ivory and wood; a riding crop with serpent head handle, unidentified artist, c. 1870, ironwood and whale ivory with nails. 3 pieces.

Lady's walking stick
Kristina Barbara Johnson, Princeton, New Jersey
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, "The Barbara Johnson Whaling Collection, Part IV," December 16-17, 1983, lot 550

Pointer with swan handle
Kristina Barbara Johnson, Princeton, New Jersey
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, "The Barbara Johnson Whaling Collection, Part I," December 11-12, 1981, lot 483

Riding crop
Kristina Barbara Johnson, Princeton, New Jersey
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, "The Barbara Johnson Whaling Collection, Part I," December 11-12, 1981, lot 274

All:  "American Radiance: Highlights of the Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum," de Menil Gallery at Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts, October 15 - December 15, 2002
"Folk Art Revealed," New York, American Folk Art Museum, November 16, 2004-August 23, 2009
"Compass: Folk Art in Four Directions," New York, The South Street Seaport Museum, June 20-October 7, 2012

American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum, p. 333, figs. 299A-C

All appear to be in good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Canes, in their simplest form, as well as pointers and riding crops, were often a whaler's first scrimshaw project, which may explain their profusion. In 1844, after a spate of scrimshawing activity aboard the Delaware whaleboat Lucy Ann, a whaler noted that there were enough canes aboard the vessel "to supply all the old men in Wilmington."¹It is also likely that many fancy canes were made not for practical use but to show off a scrimshander's skill. These illustrated specimens are the work of practiced hands.

Folk painters characteristically found hands difficult to paint, but scrimshanders frequently carved them with competence. The pervasiveness of the closed fist in scrimshaw has led to the suggestion that it represents the carvers' repressed hostility.² The cane with the fist handle is noteworthy for its fluted and inlaid shaft of whale skeletal bone. Serpent-head motifs were often used for cane handles; the cane with three twisted snakes is quite an extraordinary example. The shaft and three full-length intertwined snakes were carved from a single piece of whale skeletal bone. Some scholars maintain that the snake motif is sexually symbolic.³ Regardless, the form was a natural for ambitious cane makers. The carver of the cane with elephants, lions, whales, and ships clearly took pride in his nautical calling-the tapering shaft is of whale skeletal bone inlaid with tortoiseshell whales, dolphins, and steamers. And as seen in the two examples of canes with female leg handles, a slightly risqué lady's leg, shod, gartered, and very tactile, was a popular way to test the threshold of Victorian taste. -K.R.M.

¹ John F. Martin, quoted in Frank, Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists, p. 91.
² Richard C. Malley, In Their Hours of Ocean Leisure: Scrimshaw in the Cold Spring Harbor Maling Museum (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Whaling Museum Society, 1993), p. 39.
³ Malley, Graven by the Fishermen Themselves, pp. 92-93.