Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Grandfather's Gadget Cane

The segmented partridge wood gadget cane with 12k gold pencil holder (sans the original wood and graphite pencil) in gold fittings bearing British assay markings for 12K gold stamped CC, perhaps the maker's mark for Charles Cooke, is wrapped in a wide gold band engraved 'Warren Delano Jr. 1 Broadway, New York.' Throughout the better part of the 19th century, a man named Warren Delano Jr, (1809-1898), Franklin Roosevelt's maternal grandfather, made, lost, and made again, a fortune in shipping, mostly by smuggling illegal opium to China. Throughout much of that same period, the illustrious address of 1 Broadway, New York (and the rest of lower Broadway) was headquarters to many of the world's largest shipping companies. So much so that those city blocks were informally referred to as 'Steamship Row.' Together, the name and the address on this cane's plaque make for a compelling supposition as to exactly who the original owner might have been.