The walking stick or walking cane became the fashion accessory for the well-dressed man or woman about town starting in Europe in the 17th century.

While walking sticks, ceremonial staffs or rods, canes and poles, have all been used to aid in walking, or as fashion accessories, for literally thousands of years, the huge spike in people wearing or carrying walking sticks started in the 1600s as a reaction against men carrying swords in public.

Swords were weapons – they were only ever used as weapons – and as weapons, they invited danger, confrontation, and conflict. This was deemed as unnecessarily provocative, and gradually, the turn away from gentlemen carrying swords, towards gentlemen carrying walking sticks, began.

By the 1700s, and especially, the 1800s, only military officers (of the Army, Navy, Marines, etc), usually in full-dress uniform, would carry a sword in public. For most other people, a walking stick, umbrella, or parasol would’ve been used instead.

In an age when people walked almost everywhere, and when roads and paths were often badly paved (if paved at all!), a sturdy walking stick was absolutely essential when going about your daily life – whether it was a short trip to the village bakery to buy some rolls, a stroll across town to visit a friend, or a trek to travel from one town or village, to another!

Because of this heavy usage, walking sticks quickly became fashion accessories, and men and women of means would often buy, or have made for them, elegant, tasteful, beautiful sticks or canes with which they could carry around town, or country. For the extremely wealthy, they would have a stick that went with every outfit and possibly conceivable occasion! A stick for walks in the country, a stick about town, a stick for daywear, a stick for evening formalwear, and so-on.

Antique Malacca Walking Sticks

Malacca is the name given to the cane or rattan from the palm of the genus Calamus Scipionum, native to Southeast Asia, in particular Vietnam, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, and Indonesia. For centuries, it was one of the most prized materials for making walking sticks from.

The cane was extremely lightweight, robust, and had a distinctive honey-mustard yellow colour which made it stand out from darker materials like rosewood, ebony, and oak. The handle or grip at the top of the cane was usually made of something like ivory, silver, gold, or brass. To Europeans who were used to making walking sticks out of tree-branches, a stick made of such a pale, lightweight material reeked of Oriental exoticism! Oooh, faaancy!

It was these exotic, far-off, distant connotations that came with using malacca cane to make walking sticks (along with its obvious physical properties) that made it so popular with Europeans.

Chinese Export-Silver Walking-Stick Handles

Silver had been a popular material for walking-stick handles for centuries. Beautiful, shiny, versatile, easy to clean, and hard-wearing, silver walking-stick handles of various styles started being made in China in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially after the First and Second Opium Wars. They were just one of all kinds of silverwares being manufactured cheaply in China by Chinese silversmiths, and which were exported for sale in Europe, North America, or in European colonies in Southeast Asia.

Chinese export silver was often overtly “oriental” in its decorations, since it was meant to appeal to Europeans who, in the 1830s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, had no real concept of what China was, or even looked like. Because of that, such silverware often had decorations like flowers, dragons, phoenixes, bamboo groves, Oriental-looking figures in Oriental robes, with Chinese-style buildings and bridges in the background, and so-on. It was a fantasy – a touristy, exaggerated idea of what China looked like in the European imagination – but it suited the Chinese silversmiths to perpetuate these ideas, because this was exactly what the Western expats, tourists, and silver-dealers wanted! – Stuff that looked as “exotic” and “oriental” as possible, and which wasn’t necessarily “realistic”.

Because of this, it’s fairly easy to recognise Chinese export silver, based on the decorations alone.

Why Is It Called “Malacca”?

The material used to make rattan walking sticks was known as “Malacca” or “Malacca cane” because the material was most often harvested near, and sold from, the Malayan port town of Malacca, or from other locations which surrounded the Strait of Malacca, between the Malaysian Peninsula, and the island of Sumatra.

Ships traveling between Europe and the Far East often sailed through (and still do sail through) the Strait of Malacca to reach places like Indonesia, and the Philippines. On the way, they’d stop off in Malacca and Singapore to do extra trade, buy supplies, or pick up extra goods. One of things that sailors collected were lengths of Malacca rattan, which were sold in Europe to make walking sticks.

That said, walking sticks were also produced locally in major colonial hubs like Batavia, Singapore, Hong Kong, George Town in Penang, and Malacca in Malaysia. This was to supply the local market of wealthy planters, British and Dutch expats, tourists, and colonial military personnel, as well as well-to-do locals living in the area – and one of the most readily available materials to make these sticks from was…Malacca cane!

The Latest Addition

I bought this stick years ago, at a flea-market, for a pittance, really. It was so cheap because the silver top was in extremely rough shape – full of dents, dings, and even cracking up in some places. But I picked it up anyway, because I liked the wood and I liked the silver handle. I eventually saved up to have the handle repaired by a local jeweler, which itself was quite an undertaking.

To repair the handle, the silver has to be heated up to remove it from the shaft of the walking stick. This is to melt the resin inside the handle, which is the glue that holds the whole thing together. Once the resin is hot enough, it liquifies and expands, pushing the handle off the stick. Then the resin has to be poured out, and left to cool and solidify. The silver handle can then be repaired – having the dents pushed out, soldering up the cracks, etc…then the resin has to be heated up AGAIN to melt it, pour it back into the handle, and then the shaft goes back in after it. The resin cools…again…and sets hard, gluing the handle back onto the stick.

This is how all walking-sticks of this type were made, back in the day. It was the easiest, and cheapest, but also most secure way of fixing a handle to the top of a walking stick.

Are Malacca Canes Popular?

Very! The material which gives these sticks their name – Malacca rattan – has been used for literally centuries to make walking sticks and you can find examples dating back to the 1700s, and likely even further. Their popularity comes from their strength, smooth finish, lightness of carry, and distinct colour. They’re one of the most popular types of walking sticks to collect.

Are They Expensive?

That depends mostly on age, and embellishments. Walking sticks with simpler handles obviously cost less, walking sticks with fancier handles or features cost more. This goes for all sticks, regardless of the shaft-material. If a stick can be dated (even roughly) then that will likely increase its price. On a whole, I haven’t found Malacca walking sticks to be particularly costly, probably because the material was so commonly used, so that can make them more easily collectible.