Whale Bone Monkeys Cane

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Masterpiece Cane Auction

By Kimball Sterling

May 24, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-05-24 11:00:00 2025-05-24 11:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Masterpiece Cane Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/kimball-sterling/masterpiece-cane-auction-19479
A European Masterpiece Cane Auction Kimball Sterling kimballsterling@earthlink.net

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• Lot Description
  Ca. 1890 Massive, straight, and tapering Japanese export whalebone handle engraved in high relief with three light-hearted monkeys helping each other climb on a bare tree trunk. The playful character of the primates and alert facial expressions are rendered beautifully and speak for a talented artist who took the time to study his motif and eventually spent a longer time executing the detail. Indeed, this long and weighty handle is exceedingly well carved, with an ancient and traditional Japanese love for the perfection of the details and an accomplished approach to the dramatics. It comes with a cylindrical and plain silver collar on a malacca shaft with narrow steps fitted with a white metal ferrule, embellished with an applied silver collar finely engraved with flowery initials under a seven-tine Austrian nobility crown and an, also applied, wrapping silver ribbon engraved “BRÜCKER LAGER 11/9.1900”. No doubt, a beautiful piece of art and a statement-making aristocracy cane! However, the combination of a Japanese Meiji handle and a Viennese shaft celebrating the military bandmaster Johann Nepomuk Král's famous “Brucker Lager-Marsch” deserves some academic research for better association and identification. H. 11” x 1 ½”, O.L. 39 ½” $700-$900 The monkey lore in Japan resonates with deep Chinese undertones and strong Shinto overtones. These are blended together into a hybrid symphony of Buddhist beliefs and practices, making Japanese monkey lore a very complex, confusing, curious, and challenging topic. Notable is that monkey worship in Japan peaked in the Edo Era. Meiji, meaning “enlightened government”, was chosen by Matushito, the 15-year-old child emperor who ruled from 1868–1912, to define the goals of his reign. These goals transformed Japan and have a particular reference in the context of Japanese antiques. Artists and artisans who had created netsukes, sword furniture, and exquisite lacquerware inro suddenly found themselves out of work. Some turned to making items for the export trade, and one thing that suited their talents perfectly were cane handles. In the 1880s, Orientalism became the rage in Great Britain and France, and exotic Japanese canes and cane handles were eagerly snapped up. The military bandmaster Johann Nepomuk Král had his greatest musical success with the “Brucker Camp March” op. 51, which he composed in 1874 in Bruck an der Leitha. A commemorative plaque hangs on the facade of the "Zur Weintraube" inn at Wiener Strasse No. 7 in Bruck, where Král is said to have written this piece.
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