- Walking Stick
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The walking stick became a requisite of fashion during the seventeenth century. When crafted from exotic woods and capped with a gold head, it was suddenly elevated to an object of status. The Bayou Bend example carries an enigmatic inscription. Captain Thomas Forbes, its recipient, was a blockade runner during the Civil War and is believed to have received the walking stick, with a compass mounted in the head, in recognition for having outrun an enemy steamer and safely returned to New Orleans from Havana with desperately needed arms, powder, and coffee.
Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.
ProvenanceCaptain Thomas Forbes (1817–1906), Sherman, Texas; inherited by his son, Thomas Forbes, Jr.: inherited by his daughter Bessye (Mrs. T. W. House, III, 1877–1946); inherited by her son Edward M. House, II; given to MFAH, 1993.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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