Antiques Roadshow

my father has a small collection of canes he used to just keep him by the door in a you know holder and one day I was looking at this particular cane and noticed it's got a inscription plaque on it and I was fascinated by it and I asked him if I could take it home and do a little research and he said you can have it it's yours like that just like that so when did you get it from your dad it's been about three months so what did you find out almost nothing all I could do was get a loop and read what's on the engraved plaque and it's very hard to see it's very finely engraved the plaque says made by G Donato Lavie Qi work commenced October 1st 96 finished April 15th 1897 so we assume that's 1896 I've always assumed it's 18 yes yeah so when did your dad get this game it had to be at least 20 years ago probably no more than 40 he couldn't remember the name of the store but he definitely bought it here in San Antonio he showed me something that the top that really got my attention what was that weight at the very top it has a little carving of the Alamo the local shrine the Alamo and then below it is the inscription tag and that's probably silver and then the whole shaft is covered with these wonderful scenes I don't recognize what they are but I'm guessing they're probably from Italian operas this is the kind of thing that folk art cane collectors really love is lots of carving with lots of figures and lots of action I started going back into the census records and what I was able to find was that Daniel Levitch II emigrated to New York New York from anzi Italy and it's a little town today still in existence of about 1,800 people and by 1890 he was here the Lavi cheese were here in San Antonio well the lovi cheese ran a fruit stand on Alamo Plaza perfect and that's what this wagon shows their fruit delivery produce delivery wagon it's all ties together except for the name of the Lavi chi who carved the cane I can't find him to me this cane represents a sort of classic immigrant story of America in terms of the value did your dad say what he paid for it you know when he was actively buying canes he would never pay more than let's say a few hundred dollars but he did not remember what he paid for it it has great carving it has some traces of green paint in here it is missing at the very tip there was a little screw on metal tip or ferrule there at one time but overall it's it's in fabulous condition and I would think in a in a cane auction two people who collect folk art canes it might bring 1500 to 2500 dollars that's excellent to know

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