Antique whips

[citydog]

An acquaintance of mine recently acquired a gorgeous little collection of of driving whips, most of them whalebone. They are truly beautiful and exquisitely well-balanced.

Most of them seem to have a bit of a curve to them, though, and I was wondering if that was something inherent to the whalebone/baleen or just due to bad storage (maybe leaning against a wall, or something).

If it is due to bad storage, is there a way to safely straighten them out, and would that be a good thing to do for their long-term preservation?

[Thomas_1]

If they’re curved then they’re either damaged or not driving whips. Ladies side saddle whips often had a sort of curved handle. Are you sure that’s not what it is?

They do bend quite easily though if they’ve not been kept on a whip holder. It’s easy enough to straight by steaming and fastening it to a whip holder. But you need to ensure it is what you think it is first of all.

I’ve got a few baleen whips and it is possible to get them repaired. The last one I purchased was a singles whip with hallmarked silver and a broken goosequill and so needed repair and I paid £240 for it.

It may well be worth repairing.

Have you got any photos? If it’s got marks on then see if you can photograph them too.

[goeslikestink]

[QUOTE=Thomas_1;4961772]
If they’re curved then they’re either damaged or not driving whips. Ladies side saddle whips often had a sort of curved handle. Are you sure that’s not what it is?

They do bend quite easily though if they’ve not been kept on a whip holder. It’s easy enough to straight by steaming and fastening it to a whip holder. But you need to ensure it is what you think it is first of all.

I’ve got a few baleen whips and it is possible to get them repaired. The last one I purchased was a singles whip with hallmarked silver and a broken goosequill and so needed repair and I paid £240 for it.

It may well be worth repairing.

Have you got any photos? If it’s got marks on then see if you can photograph them too.[/QUOTE]

you learn something new everyday thanks thomas

[citydog]

I’ll try to get pictures the next time I’m there.

They’re quite long and their owner says they’re driving whips. They came from a local estate that had a family history of driving. I probably don’t have the correct terminology (“carriage whip”? “buggy whip”?).

I think most of them were made in the town of Westfield, Massachusetts back when it was the “whip city”.

[Thomas_1]

It’s absolutely possible they are and I’ll quick tell you once there’s photos