WALKING STICKS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 258, 6 November 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

WALKING STICKS.

The fashion of plain silver-headed canes which came from London several seasons ago has never been superseded as the best form for any kind of fancy cane. The small silver heads usually show no more ornament than the initial engraved on the top, although some of the heads turned out by the American silversmiths have been expensively carved and engraved. They are all modelled after the heads of the walking sticks used in the late eighteenth century, and the present fashion has caused a demand for the genuine antiques that has sent them up in price and set the dealers to searching for as many of them as can be found. They were valued formerly as mere ornaments or as heads for women's parasols, but it is for canes that they are now sought. They are not adapted for a cane that can be used on all occasions, and they require a background which is scarcely complete without the right proportions of patent leather, frock coat, and silk hat. But the handsomest and most expensive of these heads are inconspicuous comi pared with the silver crooks that were | popular several years ago.