An Antique Cane

Do you like the cane? I bought it in an antique shop for £15.00 on Monday. The shop is in the small town of Moffat, a rather agreeable place just north of the Anglo-Scottish border. I stopped there to have a look around and then found the antique shop quite by chance. I went in to see if they had any ivory handled shaving brushes as I have been after one for some time, but alas they had not seen any for years. I was when I was walking around that I saw the glass case with this quite magnificent cane in it.

The case also contained some books, an army cap, and what seemed to be a swagger stick, as well as this amazing implement of corporal correction.

I asked the shopkeeper if he knew the provenance of what I called the long swagger stick, and he told me that the case contained the effects of a now deceased army veteran who had served overseas for many years. He had been in the Black Watch, but the man could not give me any more information. The old fellow had died some years earlier and the bulk of his possessions had already been sold off.

Given that a swagger stick was in the case it is highly likely that this man was a senior NCO and would probably have been responsible for disciplining the native servants, probably those belonging to a senior officer whose house the NCO ran. We will never know where he served, but it is unlikely to have been Africa as canes like this seem to belong more to South and East Asia then anywhere else.

As you can see from this photograph, the cane has been well used over the years. The end is splitting slightly and for some reason the knobbly end and the first four inches or so just below it were varnished at some point. That varnish has now almost entirely gone, which is further proof that this cane was in regular use.

We will never know why our soldier brought the cane over to Scotland when he completed his service abroad. He may had had a wife who needed to be kept in line, or he may have kept it on his wall as a memento of the glory years when orders were barked and rumps were roasted.