Quirks of fashion – about walking canes of elegant ladies in the 19th century

Abstract

In the history of fashion, the walking stick has appeared several times as a stylish accessory to the attire of well-born, wealthy ladies. Mentions appearing in the nineteenth-century press, sometimes strongly critical, allow us to believe that also in this century from time to time elegant ladies used this seemingly exclusively male prop. Relatively few specimens have survived in Polish public and private collections that can certainly be defined as ladies’ walking sticks. Most of the surviving relics are objects devoid of historical context, so one can only assume that they may once have been used by women not only as a support, but primarily as a stylish accessory to clothing. It should also be remembered that some canes used by men were highly ornamental, and qualification based solely on aesthetic considerations may be misleading. Therefore, it is currently difficult to unequivocally identify specimens clearly intended for women. This article describes relics acquired for the collection of the National Museum in Krakow as “women’s walking sticks” and those that presumably can be considered as such.