Vertical Art

Designed for those with a love of luxury art books and exquisite photography as well as for collectors, Vertical Art celebrates the charismatic beauty and historic elegance of antique walking sticks.

A large opulent volume which presents a remarkable international collection of sticks from the 17th century to early 20th century, each in a setting designed to reflect its unique character, beauty, and often legendary detail.

Walking sticks, like many objects from the hand of man, contain a wealth of history. In use since before the time of Tutankhamen, they have been put to service over the centuries as ambulation aids, symbols of authority and status, presentation gifts, and fashionable accessories. Most often, they were not utilitarian - they were worn as an adornment and valued for their beauty.

Canes tell us about the culture, fashion, values and diversions of the people who owned them and the era in which they were made. Many are truly objects d'art, fashioned of ivory, coral, tortoise, silver, gold, platinum, wood, crystal, steel, porcelain, tortoiseshell, minerals, and precious and semi-precious stones. They have as their subject love, death, religion, politics, theater, war, vocations, history, hobbies, puzzles. They may contain secret compartments and surprises hidden within. Some have been made by legendary artists, some by unlettered folk craftsmen and mariners lonely at sea. They are allegorical, metaphorical and, sometimes, just self-evidently beautiful.

Simon Teakle is former head of the Jewelry Department at Christie's in New York.

Wendell Garrett is the former editor of the Magazine Antiques, a consultant to Sotheby's New York, and the foremost authority on American Decorative Arts.