18th-century Sundial System Walking Cane, Italy or France ? ca. 1750

Extraordinary 18th-century Sundial System Walking Cane, Italy or France ? ca. 1750

This handle, conceived as a flattened sphere box carved in elephant ivory with deep incisions representing neoclassical images is 4 cm high x 5 cm diameter. We see four intertwined mascarons with great expressions around the base, the lid, which unscrews exhibits on the terrace a medallion with the image of a Caesar, surrounded by a composition of acanthus leaves at the edge.

In the interior cavity, we find all the necessary equipment to know the time horizontally, the gnomon, cut-out by hand in gilt bronze, foldable as it should be and the Rose of the winds chart in the hand-coloured paper.

There are old restorations on the inner band of the screw that one day was broken into three parts and also make-up touches on the four 4 ivory fixation pins, which are visible in different places on the 4 mascarons, (see photos) the condition is excellent considering that it is an object frequently used before and remains over two hundred and fifty years old.

For a similar example of Sundial System Canes see C. Dike Cane Curiosa pictures 8/6 and 8/8 on Pages 82 and 83

To know more about the use of this marvellous instrument see this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial