Stick Daddy or Howard Miller. Alligator Walking Stick.
c. prior to 1861. 33"h. Some bark loss, otherwise great condition. Provenance: The Acacia Collection and The Old Slave Mart Museum. Exhibited: The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts at The Cleveland Museum, 1978, Milwaukee Art Center 1978, Museum of Fine Arts Boston 1979, Birmingham Museum of Art 1979, St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts 1979, Henry Gallery University of Washington Seattle 1979, Smithsonian Museum of History and Technology 1979. Family tradition of Baker Family: The cane was left in a tavern near Ryan's Mart by a leading citizens of Charleston, SC, sometime prior to the Civil War. It was presented to Thomas Baker, Jr. at an ancestral picnic as an honorary award sometime between 1916 and 1937. Dr. Robert Thompson examined this carving and was convinced it was probably made by "Stick Daddy" or his son. Stick Daddy was a Black cane maker near Savannah. Thompson says technique of carving eyes in rays is typical of his work. The cane has since been indentified by Dr. John Vlach as having been the work of Howard Miller. Stick Daddy always removed the entire bark from his canes where as this cane and Howard Miller left the bark on (The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts by John Michael Vlach, pg. 32, 33). Est. $1,000-2,000. Ship:$45