Art Deco, Full Shagreen Walking Cane, France circa 1920

This cane is entirely covered with a very rare and natural material called Shagreen. It’s crook handle is 10 cm high x 26 cm to the side x 2,5 cm thick. The surface shows a fine granular polished structure in chestnut-green color. Notable are the masterfully placed, three larger, pearls-like, grains which centers the back of the stingray fish. In any case, this cane has that touch of eccentricity that never goes amiss, it survived in its initial, good condition and natural patina. It ends with a 5 cm horn tip and the O.L. is 90 cm.

This cane, compromising between tradition and modernism, is from the Art Deco period, when, with the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, shagreen came into fashion after a longer absence. Shagreen was first popularized in Europe by Jean-Claude Galluchat (d. 1774), a master leatherworker in the court of Louis XV of France. It quickly became a fashion amongst the French aristocracy, and migrated throughout Europe by the mid-18th century. (Y. Kadri)