Catalog: Antiques: Instruments and Implements (6)

An interesting antique staghorn walking stick with an excellently carved male head – a portrait? The partly dark and dotty structure of the horn is skilfully used to underline the grotesque character of the face. The stick was found in Sweden and the silver mounting between handle and stick bears hallmarks from Dalecarlia in Sweden and year mark for 1891. However, the handle was certainly not made in Sweden...

Very decorative French Art Nouveau walking stick, c 1910. Forming the handle is a silver plated lady’s head with flowers in her hair and flowing tresses. Total length "36 / 92 cm.

Small and pretty desk seal, gilded silver and banded agate, with two minuscule French hallmarks, probably a boar´s head (in use from 1838 on small items). From around 1850-60 = 2nd Empire. The seal stone, not engraved, is yellow in tone, probably a citrine or a topaze. Height "2/ 5.4 cm. Condition: the agate handle with repair (cf. pics).

A burl wood thread box and a crochet hook or needle case. Both Swedish, the thread box made of birch wood, the crochet hook case with the impressed name of a haberdasher in Eskilstuna, an old industrial center in Sweden. The lid of the case with a practical hexagonal form, to stay in place, and a pretty acorn end. Length "7 1/3 / 19 cm, height of the thread box"3/ 7.5 cm. Condition: fine.

Miniature umbrella made of bone and wood, Victorian, late 19th century. Either a toothpick or a bodkin/fid for punching holes in order to keep threads apart in English embroidery / Broderie Anglaise and for other sewing purposes. "2/ 5.7 cm. Condition: fine.

Theriac or Mithridate lead seal, dating from the first years of the 17th century. Theriac (from a Greek word related to “wild beasts”) was a classic antidote, a mixture including snake flesh, opium, myrrh and minerals plus spices, adding up to more than 60 ingredients in all. This concoct is said to have been invented by Mithridates, an Anatolian king who lived in fear of being poisoned. Later it became the speciality of Venetian apothecaries...