Welcome to my newsletter as we fast approach the Olympia Antique Fair, Monday 10 to Sunday 16 November. Please let me know if you require complimentary tickets if you have not already received them (click here).

This is one of the world's major antique fairs and will be thronging with collectors, international dealers and museum curators, all busily ticking items off their shopping lists and buying items to stuff into rather select Christmas stockings. I hope to see you all there and help you find that special cane, walking stick or umbrella to enhance your collection and give yourself a Christmas treat.

So, hurry along with the words of E.M. Forster ringing in your ears...

"All men are equal. All men, that is, who possess umbrellas!"

Your Company Is Requested ...

Olympia Winter Fine Art & Antiques Fair 2008
(10-16 November 2008)

Britain's major event in the world of antiques. Looking forward to seeing you all there. To request an invitation click here.

Fiddle Sticks and Flute Canes

There will be a decidedly musical theme to my display at the Olympia fair in November, with offerings from both the woodwind and string sections. We will be offering an ebony flute cane, a penny whistle cane which was originally sold as a novelty at the Crystal Palace Exhibition and a one-string street musician's phono fiddle cane.

The highlight, however, will be a mahogany violin cane. This item - which also contains the original bow within the shaft of the cane - is a serious instrument and is in good condition. Violin canes are often regarded as the Holy Grail by serious collectors and we are very pleased to have such a fine example. The legendary violinist Jascha Heife was known to play a similar model to the one we are taking.

Canes from the Royal Tomb

As the dust settled and the archaeologists' lamps surveyed Tutankhamun's tomb - the first eyes to have viewed it in three thousand years - it revealed a never-seen-before treasure house. They were amazed at the wealth and items contained within the only Pharoah's tomb to have escaped the grave robbers' clutches.

As the serious job of cataloguing, photographing and restoration began, Professor Carter was most surprised to find 132 walking sticks, staffs and canes within the royal chambers. The professor opined that King Tutankhamun may well have been a keen collector of canes, probably overlaying his Edwardian views on Egyptian culture.

Canes and staffs undoubtedly indicated royal status, and were made of gold, ivory, ebony and silver, whilst some of them portrayed the features of conquered nations. As we consider these facts and our thoughts turn to our personal cane collections, we are undoubtedly humbled by the thought that, no matter how much we prize our own items, the greatest collection must lie in the museum at Cairo. In the words of the poet... "look on my works, ye mighty, and despair".

Whilst grappling on the precipice of the treacherous Reichenbach Falls, Sherlock Holmes was saved from certain death at the hands of the evil Professor Moriarty, by his knowledge of Bartitsu. He explains to Dr Watson that, because he was acquainted with this popular Victorian martial art, he was able to defeat the underworld Napoleon of crime, much to the relief of Conan Doyle's publishers and the British public in general.

Bartitsu was a method of self defence with a walking stick or umbrella and was a combination of Japanese Ju-Jitsu and French stick fighting developed by Edward Barton-Smith, a British engineer who built railways in Japan for many years. (Click here to find out more.)

Self-defence with a walking cane was popular in 19th Century Europe, as street crime was commonplace and luckily all gentlemen carried a cane. Amongst the many publications on this subject my favourite has to be "The Cane as a Weapon" by A C Cunningham, (click here) which features many fine photographs of a gentleman in a sharp suit and trilby hat wielding a cane in a most proficient manner.

Another interesting publication is "The "Walking Stick" Method of Self Defense", (click here), by someone who describes himself merely as an Officer in the Indian Police. For some reason the author especially recommends his book to boy scouts! For those interested in pursuing defence with a cane, Canemasters give instruction and seminars in Britain and the USA. Contact www.canemasters.com.