Description:

JULIUS HOGARTH Australian silver topped cane with cast and chased scuptured head of "Ricketty Dick" stamped "J.HOGARTH" with conjoined letters "TH". Mid 19th Century. 84cm.

Rickett Dick, an Aboriginal man of the Broken Bay tribe, was born around the turn of the 18th century. His real name appears to have been Warrah Warrah, which he changed to William Warral. He was well known and liked and resided in the Rose Bay area. He was sketched a number of times, notably by Charles Rodius (see Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales), and fashioned in silver sculptures and on "coins" by the silversmith Julius Hogarth and his apprentice Evan Jones.

Julius Hogarth (originally Hougaard) was born in Copenhagen in 1822 and arrived in Sydney in 1852. By 1854 he was in partnership with Conrad Erichsen at 255 George Street. The company produced gold jewellery, gold and silver sculptures and fine presentation pieces for the local and international markets, as well as pieces to present at the 1855 Paris Universal Exhibition. The partnership dissolved in 1861. Hogarth started a couple of businesses of his own, only to close in 1865, due to theft and bankruptcy, he then sought employment with other silversmiths.

Evan Jones one of Hogarth's apprentices seems to have started his own business in the 1870's and exhibited "Walking sticks with oxidized silver head of the last Aboriginal king, Ricketty Dick" at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London in 1886, an example of which is now in a Private Collection. See: Nineteenth Century Australian Silver, Volume One by J.B.Hawkins, Plate 125. A fine sculpture of Ricketty Dick, unmarked, but attributed to Julius Hogarth now resides in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum.

The silver by the partnership of Hogarth & Erichsen is all known to be stamped with both their names. This walking stick with the bust of Ricketty Dick is only stamped "J.HOGARTH" and appears to be the only piece recorded in his name alone. The piece must have been manufactured at his premises at 21 or 6 Hunter Street, in about 1865.

Ricketty Dick died on 11 June 1863 from "a disease of long standing, accelerated by cold and exposure", followed by Hogarth on 5 March 1879, from "chronic liver disease"