Here we have a fine-looking item – one of some very rare antique walking stick instruments. It’s a musical cane that doubles as a working four-string violin. Flutes and violins were in fact the most popular instrument walking sticks that became all the rage in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

It seems that the walking stick violin was invented in the mid-eighteenth century by the German musician Johann Wilde. (He also invented the nail violin!!!)

There’s a wonderful photo in the Library of Congress (USA) of the legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz playing a walking stick violin around 1900.

This particular walking stick violin or cane violin has a body crafted in what appears to be stained and varnished maple wood and has an ornamental handle. The violin itself is hidden inside the body under a cover, held in place with nickel silver bands. This cover is removed to allow the violin to be played.  If you screw off the handle, the violin’s accompanying bow is revealed. The soundboard is made of spruce and the fingerboard and tailpiece are built in wood painted black to look like ebony. The strings are tuned with small iron pins that can be tuned with a key.

This walking stick instrument has found a new home where it will have the chance to surprise and delight once again!