Physicians' canes

Physicians' canes

Traditionally, canes and physicians had a close association. In Greek mythology the deity Asclepius, who was associated with medicine and health, wielded a rod with a serpent wound round it. The physicians cane came into vogue in Britain in the eighteenth-century, after the fashion of cane carrying crossed the Channel from France. The cane was associated with the professions, emphasising the masculinity of intellectual rationality rather than physical prowess. Physicians’ canes were often passed from one physician to the next, some for centuries. Their popularity began to decline in the early nineteenth-century, but the tradition of the physicians cane carried over into the twentieth-century, mostly through portraiture.

The Royal College of Physicians has a total of nine canes including the presidential ‘gold-headed’ cane’. Acquired over several years, the canes are united in their type (seven are definitely of the ‘decorative’ variety) but differ significantly in their designs, thus making them an interesting and diverse collection.

18th century - 20th century