Stuart White was one “hell of a collector” and named one of the top bandleaders in the United States. He and his orchestra performed at several presidential inaugurations, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He produced many celebrity acts such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Bette Midler, Aretha Franklin, Jay Leno, and Tony Bennett. Stuart was featured in New York Magazine, NewYork Times, BusinessWeek, NewYork Post, and many other periodicals and industry publications. Stuart was interviewed by the Today show about his cane collection and had exhibited his collection at the Parrish and Katonah museums. He also wrote several articles on the art of collecting canes. Stuart began his collection in the early 1970’s. He also had a fascination as a child with the TV star Bat Masterson. He, like many of us cane collectors, had the toy Masterson cane. When he began his collection, there was little knowledge of canes’ value and not much reading material available. He began his own quest for knowledge in many different categories of canes. In the early ‘80’s he began tracking prices of folk art canes. Stuart, like most collectors, purchased canes that he admired not just because of their value, but what that cane meant to him. Stuart never stopped his pursuit of folk canes throughout the past 30 years. His personal love for the field of canes has brought you this collection. Stuart had the most versatile knowledge of the walking stick field as any collector in the world. Some of his canes may be seen in Canes in the United States by Catherine Dike and various other publications.
