Topic: Hollow glass walking stick..filled with tiny beads.

[david31162]

I found this last weekend. It is a full size walking stick filled with what appear to be glass beads.I have only seen solid and twisted canes before. Can anyone help with date or origin?
Thank you

David

[Paul S.]

As you probably know, walking sticks are usually referred to in the books as 'friggers', and seem to have been very popular from about 1840 to roughly the end of the C19 - most are of solid glass.          There are references in some books that indicate that hollow examples were made on the Continent and filled with sweets 'such as the tiny granular hundreds and thousands'.
Don't know whether you can in some way open your stick and test a few of your 'glass beads'  -  presumably if your teech disintegrate then you were right first time  -  if however you experience a pleasant taste, then you probably have sweets.
Your stick doesn't look very much like the period examples  -  maybe these things have been made in recent times, possibly.   How is your example sealed?

[Paul S.]

having dug a little more..........would seem that clear glass sticks containing confectionary in the form of these tiny granules were not that rare, and for whatever reason they were much less inclined to have the more common crook shaped handle of the solid type.          It's also quite possible that the colouring used for the sweets was inclined to fade with exposure to the sun.      Neither Geoffrey Wills ('English & Irish Glass') nor Catherine Dike (Walking Sticks - Shire publication) seem willing to date these things, other than saying simply C19 or 'almost impossible to date' - but probably earlier than I'd thought.
We've had threads on 'hats' before, and believe the following link brings up some information on friggers etc., so you might try contacting the NT people at the museum to see if they can help.                http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/

[chriss]

I don't know if this is any help, but I purchased mine a few years ago and was told that it was stourbridge glass and was filled with sweets as it was originally part of a shop display but I never bothered checking the maker out. An old, tiny cork was used as the stopper for mine, but the very end of the glass appears snapped off as it's uneven, so I'm unsure if the contents are original to the glass, though a lot of the 100's and 1000's are very faded, though it's been kept well away from light

[Lustrousstone]

David's looks much more like lampwork based on scientific glass tubing IMHO

[david31162]

Thank you for all your answers, sorry for the late reply,complete and total computer failure! Anyway managed to get hold of a work computer.
 I see what you mean about the scientific glass tubing Lustrousstone it exactly like that. Paul and Chriss you are right about the sweets..the very tip of this is broken and reveals the sweets. I thought as they were still in place and as the tip is missing they must have been fused , but no...just wet and stuck together. The rings of damp (dirt and wear)at the bottom of this seem to suggest it was used as a walking stick! Bought it with a collection of very well used wooden canes.
I may have to upload a few more pictures, the misery of losing all my files on my old computer sent me off to auction. That always seems to work...it did. Guess what? A clearance from what must have been the house of an old glass collector....with hardly any buyers present. Missed loads due to lack of funds..... but I'm still surrounded by 3 crates of the stuff.
Thanks for your help .
David

[Paul S.]

sorry to hear of your misfortunes, David  -  life's vicissitudes up to their old tricks again

Please don't foget that, in line with historical correctness, you must, each morning after rising, use a duster to wipe your walking stick.      This, apparently, will remove all traces of germs, the ague, marsh fever, and bad luck and you will never again have problems with your pc....

look forward to seeing contents of your three crates. 

[David E]

David's looks much more like lampwork based on scientific glass tubing IMHO

If lab glass, then I wonder if this is a Chance frigger, and the glass beads are Ballotini?

[Lustrousstone]

No, the glass beads are sweeties

[Paul S.]

I thought it was each other we called 'sweetie'  -  and those things in the glass sticks were sweets.