 This Is One Of My favorates it looks like 6 birthday candles, guess what it is (9162)
Theres no sense trying to guess what this one is for, as the odds of your knowing would be very very rare. The only reason I can tell you, is because the person I got it from knew. I've been in the antique business a long time and I've never even heard of one, and thats because it's a French auctioneers cane. As you can see from the pictures there are 6 candles, and 3 ivory knobs that raise them two at a time. There are lines around the outside of the cane and how high the candles are raised determines how long it takes the candles to burn down and out. As the story goes there are two candles to burn for each item sold, if one blows out before the other, the sale is continued until the last one burns to the surface. When the candle burns out the auction is over, its a timed sale. The only part I'm fuzzy about is, I'm not sure if it was only used to see houses or if it included personal property. Maybe someday a Frenchman will tell me. I've never heard of it being done that way in America. The owner traced it to a Grandfather who used it around 1900 in France. It's all made from nickel plated brass. It has a malacca shaft and horn ferrule with the entire cane in mint condition. I only got three candles so I cut them in half to get six pieces. I'll probably never find any other candles this thin.
Category: Gadget
Sub Category: City - Manufactured
Listed: 2007-05-19 20:21:02
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