Carved Applewood Cane

Carved Applewood Cane, America, c. 1875, figurehead-style carved handle in the form of a female nude with draped waist sash and scroll embellishments, exposed knot at the top of the bark-covered tapering shaft with clipped twigs, varnished natural surface, with stand, lg. 35 3/4 in. Provenance: Kelter/Malc}. Literature: The execution of the figure relates in certain details, especially face and hands, to a ship's figurehead attributed to Herbert Gleason, Boston, c. 1865, in the collection of The Mariner's Museum, Newport News, Virginia. The figurehead is pictured in Milton Simpson's FOLK EROTICA, (New York, 1994), p. 48.