Product Details
AN EXCEPTIONALLY RARE GEMSBOK-HORN WALKING CANE PRESENTED TO FREDERICK SELOUS BY CECIL J. RHODES,
measuring approx. 35in. the pommel with circular silver escutcheon engraved 'FREDERICK C. SELOUS. A GOOD FRIEND. FROM CECIL J. RHODES. 31ST DECEMBER 1893'
Provenance: The date on this cane would indicate that this was a birthday gift from Cecil Rhodes to Frederick Selous on his 42nd birthday.
At this time Selous had taken part in the 1st Matabele War (October 1893 - January 1894) in the service of the British South Africa Company at the request of Cecil Rhodes, and he was wounded during the advance on Bulawayo on the 2nd November. Recorded in Millais' record of Selous' life was his recounting of the encounter to his (then) future wife as "...whistling of the bullets made my horse very restive, and presently one of them hit me. The wound, however, is not dangerous. The bullet struck me about three inches below the right breast, but luckily ran round my ribs and came out behind, about eight inches from where it entered..."
In December 1893, Selous left Bulawayo, and arrived in England in February 1894. In April of 1894 he married Marie Catherine Gladys Maddy.
During this period Cecil Rhodes had become Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (in 1890), and overseen the formation of Rhodesia in the first part of the decade. He was forced to resign as Prime Minister in 1896 after the disastrous Jameson Raid, a botched raid on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic carried out by British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson and his Company troops. It was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers (known as Uitlanders) in the Transvaal but failed to do so.
The basic plan was that Johannesburg would revolt and seize the Boer armoury in Pretoria. Jameson and his force would dash across the border to Johannesburg to "restore order" and with control of Johannesburg would control the gold fields. The plan failed and there was no insurrection, but this event was one of the inciting factors in the (second) Boer War.
Literature: 'The Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O. Capt. Royal Fusiliers' by John G. Millais
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Estimate £1,000-1,500