By, Sara Conklin
I have included a photo of a walking cane belonging to my grandfather. Inscribed on handle”Robert McCulloch 1845-1895. Thank You, James
Walking sticks are one of a few items of personal adornment allowed to men. Your stick has a wonderful decorative engraved and cast knob that may or may not be gold. This is the first bit of information to pin down. Most jewelers have the ability to test the karat content or purity of gold. The higher the karat the better. Actually if the content is really high the gold is so soft that it will deform. 1st job, find out what the top is made of and, if gold, the karat rating. 2nd job, since the cane top is engraved with “Robert Mc Cullouch 1845-1895,” is to determine how widely famous or not our Mr. Mc Cullouch was. If he was the Captain of the TITANIC or an ex-president – game over and you won. If not, perhaps he was regionally famous or just your grandfather. Items do better on the market the more famous the person that owned them. This concept is tied in with the term “provenance” which, in a museum and appraisal context, refers to the history of or chain of ownership of an artifact. 3rd job is to look at recent auction sales of similar canes. I will make the assumption that Mr. Mc Cullouch is not famous and it is 14 karat. I mention the auction market since I assume you might want to sell it and that you aren’t an antique dealer. You, as a private citizen not in business as a dealer, have access to the auction market. In March of this year a gold handled cane and an ivory tipped riding crop sold for $200. Since you have only a cane and the handle is smaller than the one sold, maybe your cane is in the $125 range. In December 2008 a famous beer baron’s 14K gold cane with a huge knob sold for $720. This is not comparable to yours. This is not an official appraisal but a report of recent market research. Sara Conklin, ISA CAPP
