 A Entomologist Cane (8413)
A scientist ask me at a show if I had a entomologist cane with this little microscope inside, as he had once seen one.. I remembered I had, but I hadn’t looked at it for a long time, as I had decided not to put gadget canes in the books that have an item loose inside. I made that decision because most of the reproduction canes being made in England are of that type, and I didn’t want to have the stigma of illustrating things like those that could be criticized. They are too easy to make. That’s when it occurred to me I should talk about this cane, because the largest category of gadget canes are those with loose items inside. As I looked at it I said, if someone made this cane recently, I’m a fan.
After I describe this cane I’m going to give some pointers as to how you will know a cane is a repro or not.
The first thing you notice is that it doesn’t look like a gadget and when you twist the ivory knob it doesn’t turn. You have to put two fingers on top of the coin and twist the shaft, as the coin is flush with the ivory. The coin is an 1836 seated liberty which really doesn’t add much value to the cane because coins can be put on any cane, and doesn’t prove anything, but it does match the age of the handle, shaft, 4” ferrule and microscope, which are important. What actually convinced me is the container inside the handle and shaft is an entire tube, which is waterproof with the coin in place. The other detail is that the back of the coin is ivory lined to match the cane handle and microscope handle. These kinds of details are totally lacking in the canes I see being made today.
In the end there will still be skeptics.
The following is an excerpt from the gadget cane philosophy, the bottom article on the list in Cane Forum one of the tickets on the home page If you have read it several times and mentally adopted the information, quit reading here, and go on to the next cane. If you haven’t read it several times, and decided what the rules of your philosophy are, go to the forum.
2. Fakes
A. Often unrealistic
1. ie. Handle is a match safe soldered on side
2. Made with new parts
B. Handles that are made from things that do not fit the hand
1. ie. Dog with ears standing up
C. Handle made for other use that is newly assembled as a cane handle
1. ie. Round pocket slide rule, telescope, opera glasses, owl with glasses
a. These should be assumed to be fakes when they are attached with new polished brass, gun-blued brass, artificially browned steel, brass threads in a silver or gold handle, loose items that rattle inside and those that have new shafts
Category: Gadget
Sub Category: Occupational - Tools
Listed: 2006-11-17 21:54:51
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