 Momento Mori In Chinese (8702)
Momento means in memory and Mori means death. This is one of our more interesting discusions, because there are so many aspects to this cane.
The three faces are Mary, Jesus, and the face of death.The skeleton is symbolic of death without Christ. That with Christ we will live forever and never die. The face of Christ is symbolic of God. Mary as the Mother of God speaks to God on our behalf when we pray to her. On the shaft is a silver collar with the symbol of a nun and the word Nunspeet. Nunspeet is an area in Holand. . When I purchased it I was told it belonged to a Reverend Mother, the head of nuns in a convent. The height of the cane is 41”, more like a staff than a cane. Carried as symbolic of their position, rather than to hold them up. The bottom of the handle is flat and is filled with Chinese writing, engraved into the boarder around the shaft. Easily readable but not by me. I showed a picture of a cane expert and he didn’t think it was a cane handle, because of the flat bottom. What leads me to believe it was carved for a convent is the fact that the writing is in a circle around the shaft and not covered by the shaft. It is a single row of letters. The style of Jesus looks like Jesus was Chinese. Even Mary looks like she was Chinese. The shaft is tapered partridge wood with no ferrule, indicating it was not factory made, but made for inside use. The nuns and Mother Superior would have been European, not Chinese, and maybe from nunspeet. The carvings look like the 1920's.
It will be interesting to hear more on this one.
Category: Handcarved - Folkart
Sub Category: Ivory
Listed: 2006-10-27 00:48:19
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