PBA Galleries

35" presentation walking stick with elaborately engraved solid gold knob inset with a 1¼" octagonal piece of natural California gold in quartz, and upturned engraved side flutes. The wood shaft is made of a grained fruitwood fitted with a brass cap at the opposite end. The stick is engraved in the side flutes in each panel with the names Adolphe and Hortence, and then the presentation "a leur pere", and the fanciful initials LR (Lazare Roos).

The walking stick was presented by Adolphe Roos (1837-1908) and his sister Hortence (or Hortense) (1839-?) to their father Lazare Roos (1809-?) in San Francisco. Members of an early French Jewish family who emigrated to San Francisco from the Alsace and Lorraine areas of France, the Roos brothers, Adolphe, Hypolite and Achille, founded the first Roos Bros. clothing and department store in 1865 with Hypolite soon moving to the booming mining town of Virginia City, Nevada to open a branch there, while Adolphe and Achille managed the San Francisco store at 35 and 37 Kearny Street. Adolphe Roos was directly responsible for the financial and buying operations of the business and the brothers maintained a progressive outlook on merchandising techniques to establish the steady financial growth of their business. In the 1880's they were one of the first to operate a clothing store on a multi level site, and found that customers were willing to climb a flight of stairs to take advantage of superior, trustworthy merchandise, fairly priced. After the 1906 earthquake and fire, Roos Bros. moved the records from the store to the Adolphe Roos home on Jackson Street and then as the city recovered in 1908, opened a brand new department store at Stockton and Market Streets which became the largest store in the Roos Bros. organization. Roos Bros. grew to be one of the largest clothing store chains on the West Coast with stores from San Francisco to Los Angeles, until it became Roos-Atkins in the 1960's. Gold Quartz walking sticks and canes are prized California collectibles and more detailed information about them with many illustrations can be found in Witherall, California's Best, Old West Art & Antiques. Accompanying the lot is a copy of Insley, The Story Of Roos Bros., Outfitters Since 1865, San Francisco, Privately Printed, 1945. 8vo, 50pp printed on handmade paper by Taylor & Taylor, slipcase. This is the printer's copy with the bookplate of the Library of Taylor & Taylor. The book contains considerable information on the life of Adolphe Roos. Provenance: Descended in the Roos family to our consignor.