SCRIMSHAWED BONE-HANDLED CANE DEPICTING SAILING SHIPS AND SAILOR

T-handled lacquered wooden cane with a nautical scrimshawed bone derby grip and a ferrule of dark horn or baleen. N.p., ca. 1800-1850. Overall approx. 36 1/2 in. long.

The 14k gold spacer is engraved with a presentation to "Samuel Pillsbury". Given the lack of a presentation date or middle initial and the absence of period reporting on a cane presented to a Samuel Pillsbury, it is unknown precisely who the intended recipient was. He may have been a member of the Pillsbury Family of Newburyport, Massachusetts, as, per the 1891 Account of the Proceedings at the Reunion of the Pillsbury Family at Newburyport, the Pillsburys presented a cane crafted from the timbers of their ancestral home to one Secretary E. L. Pilsbury, and a pair of Samuels Pillsbury were listed in other official positions in the same account. 

The head of the cane is intricately scrimshawed with a barque ship to the point, with another to the side at the valley, and, to the finial of the horn, with a sailor in a brimmed hat and jacket manning a steering wheel.

Note: This lot cannot be packaged and shipped in-house. Successful bidders winning items marked as being packaged and shipped by a third-party service are responsible for paying the third party directly. We are happy to offer complimentary drop-off service to local third-party packing/shipping companies in Columbus, Ohio.

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