Cleveland Museum of Art

Cane Handle (Poignée de canne)

Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory

Date

c.1700–1720

Medium

soft-paste porcelain with underglaze blue decoration

Culture

France, Saint Cloud, early 18th Century

Department

Decorative Art and Design

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

With its ribbing and underglaze blue decoration in the form of draping blue garlands, this porcelain handle was likely among the first to have been produced at the Saint-Cloud Porcelain Factory. Though Saint-Cloud may have been the first to produce porcelain cane handles as fashionable accessories, their popularity meant that they were soon produced at a variety of other French factories during the first half of the 1700s. Canes, or sticks, were popular fashion accessories for aristocratic men, women, and children in 18th-century France.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.