$1.3M cane collection to be auctioned in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS — With a concealed crowbar, lockpick and pistol, this unsuspicious cane would be the perfect tool for a professional criminal.

But the cane’s former holder came by his money honestly as owner of a nursing home in the Bloomington area.

Fred Ponton, who died at age 77 in February, paid more than $30,000 to collect the treasure, which was originally crafted for a French thief.

It’s part of Ponton’s extensive collection of antique and collectible canes, which will be auctioned Saturday during an estate sale at Wickliff Auctioneers in Carmel. Online bidding also is available.

Ponton didn’t collect average canes. Instead, he pursued the strange, fun and dangerous. While often ordinary on the outside, almost all of Ponton’s 168 canes store something hidden inside.

One cane holds a 25-inch sword. A photographer’s cane from the early 1900s allows for 24 photos to be shot. An ale and beer cane unscrews to measure levels of alcohol.

Ponton’s daughters are selling the canes. Michelle Kleindorfer said her father appreciated the history and detail included with each cane.

“Some of them are museum quality,” she said. “They need to go to someone that would appreciate them.”

Auction organizers expect to attract collectors from as far away as New Zealand and South Africa.

Chris Leske, director of auction operations, said the collection won’t be available for purchase again anytime soon.

“Once people purchase those types of items, they don’t sell them,” Leske said. “They keep them forever.”

Still, Ponton’s collection was anything but average.

Tables in the auction hall are lined with Ponton’s prized canes. Some of the more unusual canes are:

• A sea captain's cane with removable compass and telescope inside.

•​ A tortoise shell blow dart cane with nine darts inside.

•​ A cane that releases candy or mints when the top is twisted.

•​ A cane that opens into a violin with a bow in the handle.

Ponton paid a lot of money for them, including $18,460 for a surveyor’s cane that opens into a tripod and $11,600 for a diamond merchant’s cane with weights, tweezers and a secret diamond compartment.

His most expensive was gifted by President Andrew Jackson to a former Kentucky governor in 1832. Ponton paid $90,000.

In total, Ponton’s collection is insured at $1.3 million.

Now the public will decide the current value of Ponton’s collection. The family has agreed to hold the auction with no reserves, meaning no minimum price is required.

More information about the canes is available on Wickliff Auctioneers website.