About the Artist
Designer/Artist/Fabricator - Silvio P. Marraccini
The maker of Fine Art Canes has been involved in the electronics and telecommunications field for over 25 years. Over the years he has been an avid aficionado and collector of unique and unusual items. His areas of interest include custom automotive, motorcycle, marine, art, antiques and electronics.
The maker was involved in the telecom industry performing engineering design and fabrication work. For many years handling the design criteria for extensive and large custom steel projects. He is an avid collector and aficionado of custom auto motorcycles, boats, unique and unusual antique items/pieces. He has always had a fine appreciation for metal fabrication and finishes. While having collected canes for numerous years, he discovered a void in high end/ high quality cane availability. True collectors and aficionado's are limited to older antique waking stick/canes. There are few, if any, heirloom/collectible modern manufacturers or masters existing today.
“The Fine Art Canes line is designed to take things to a much higher level ...”
He also saw a need for a modern stylized "city walking stick" from a style/status and security perspective. The maker once spotted a young executive on Wall Street in Manhattan walking with an upside down iron golf putter as a walking stick. It was a novel picture witnessing this well dressed lad in a suit with his golf putter walking stick. The general impression set him apart from the crowd instantly separating him from the masses in a unique way and also somewhat subtly creating an aura of security and style.
The Fine Art Canes line is designed to take things to a much higher level than this lad's golf putter version/choice. Fine Art Canes afford the user a unique high end style and security statement in today's fast paced world. The fine cane/walking stick historically was a very popular fashion item among those with "means". The aristocrats, royalties and wealthy popularized the waling stick vastly in earlier times.
“We have over 40 distinctive limited edition designs ...”
We are just now seeing a reinvention of the fine walking stick/cane returning to Vogue. The fine walking stick/cane can be found featured in several recent movies, music videos, award ceremonies (MTV Awards) and TV series (House).
Fine Art Canes desires to be a premier provider of the highest quality walking sticks/canes for this new renaissance in canes popularity. We have over 40 distinctive limited edition designs which are sold with a signed, sealed, numbered, embossed certificate of authenticity.
These recreations of stylized walking sticks are targeted for aficionado's collectors and users who appreciate "art level quality". These aficionado's and collectors simply won't accept inferior "pot metal" mass produced, imported, run of the mill, not collectible walking sticks/canes.
Our craftsmanship
All of our canes are expertly hand crafted, on an individual custom basis, from the highest quality materials and are available in a variety of sizes, designs and finishes. All of our cane heads are designed by the artist and are created using the lost wax process of investment casting to bring out the intricate detailing of each unique design. The shaft is manufactured from the highest quality mahogany, walnut, ultra high-tech carbon fiber, titanium or other exotic wood, with a brass tipped ferrule or combination rubber and ice-spike convertible tip.
Tradition
The walking stick/cane was most popular in the the 1920's and 30's among the social elite. A fine cane was a sign of wealth and extreme social status. Today that tradition continues among the wealthy and social elite and Fine Art Canes is striving to keep that tradition alive for years to come.
Contact Information
Fine Art Canes, Inc. 170 King Street, 3rd Floor Chappaqua, NY 10514Silvio P. Marraccini, Fabricator & Artist 914-844-0539 Cell 914-238-0293 Office 914-238-0515 FAX
History of the Cane or Walking Stick
The Cane or Walking Stick was used first as a weapon. It gradually took on the symbolism of strength and power and eventually authority and social prestige.
Ancient Egyptian rulers carried the symbolic staff, and in ancient Greece, some gods were represented with a staff in hand. In the Middle Ages, the long staff or walking stick was carried by pilgrims and shepherds. A scepter carried in the right hand symbolized royal power; carried in the left hand of a king the staff represented justice. The church, too, adopted the staff for its officials; the pastoral staff (crosier), which is long and has a crooked handle, symbolizes the bishop's office. The word cane was first applied to the walking stick after 1500, when bamboo was first used. After 1600 canes became highly fashionable for men. Made of ivory, ebony, and whalebone, as well as of wood, they had highly decorated and jeweled knob handles. They were often made hollow in order to carry possessions or supplies or, in some cases, to conceal a weapon. In the late 17th cent. oak sticks were extensively used, especially by the Puritans. The cane continued in men's fashions throughout the 18th cent.; as with the women's fan certain rules became standard for its use. From time to time women adopted the cane, particularly for a short time when Marie Antoinette carried the shepherd's crook. In the 19th cent. the cane became a mark of the professional man. The gold-headed cane was especially favored among the elite.
The high-end cane/walking stick is returning to the forefront of today's men's fashion. The cane/walking stick is being carried by some of the leading men in both the music and entertainment industries and is becoming ever so popular among Hollywood's elite.