This L-shaped handled cane or waking stick has a top made entirely of tortoise shell. Two halves were created then capped with a separately turned tortoise shell button. The wood of the shaft is ebonized mahogany with a ferrule added at a later period, "Japan" inscribed on the ferule bottom. The silver plated brass collar is the joiner that holds the screwed-on shell handle to the shaft. Within a small crevice in the cane is a tortoise shell bracketed bleeder knife. In 19th century England it was demanded that a doctor always carry a bleeder to draw blood to help an ailing patient. This cane assured the doctor always had the instrument at hand.

Weight (Lbs): 0.5
Height (In.): 31.75"
Width (In.): 3.25"
Depth (In.): .75"
Size: 478.5 x 4.0 x 4.0"
Maker: Unknown
Material: Tortoise Shell, MAhogany, Silver, Brass
Date: C. 1840
Provenance:
Condition: Small amounts of chipping and scratching to the handle of the cane, a small 1/8" loss to the cover of the bleeder, light scoring and losses to the ebonized coating.
History: In times before modern anatomical understanding and surgical procedures, it was believed that many diseases were the result of an imbalance in the body's humors, fluids that dictated bodily harmony. The fluids were blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. When a person became ill, doctors would resort to bleeding their patients in an attempt to balance their humors again. This invariably did far more harm than good, but it gave them a sense of usefullness when often there was nothing to be done at all.