A carved sandalwood walking stick Mysore, second half of the 19th Century the pommel in the form of a lion with a protruding tongue, with tapering shaft, decorated in relief with bands of floral, foliate, and zig-zag motifs and rectangular panels containing birds on a foliate ground to the top of the shaft, the finial with hatched, foliate and scale designs, the end with repeating curved notches 89.4 cm. long Footnotes: A similar sandalwood walking stick was presented to King Edward VII, when Prince of Wales, during his tour of India in 1875-76, by Vijayarama III Gajapati Raju Pusapati, Maharaja of Vizianagaram. It remains in the Royal Collection (RCIN 11429). Such pieces were produced by gudigars, a group of hereditary temple carvers thought to have migrated to South India from Goa in the 16th Century. The earliest known example of gudigar-carved sandalwood object outside of a temple context is a travelling bed thought to have been made for Tipu Sultan in the late 18th Century, currently at Powis Castle, Wales (Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, London: V&A Publications, 2001, p.149, fig. 67). For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing