Here are two fine specimens:-
The shorter cane is 36 inches long while the longer one is 40 1/2" long.
The longer one is different from the shorter one, because the stick still has its original ridges on the joints along its length, as can been seen from the close up of its handle and a section along its straight length in the next two pictures.
now there
The next two pics show corresponding parts of the shorter cane which has been smoothened.
When I acquired the longer stick, I was suspicious about its authenticity, because I remembered my dad's cane was smooth. I told a friend, who happened to be a CEO of an old British Straits Settlement firm. He promptly sent one of his employees who happened to live in Malacca to acquire the "real" Malacca cane for me. His employee reported that the seller explained that both were Malacca canes.
I've checked up the Internet; there's no Wikipedia info on the Malacca cane; but other websites all claim the cane comes from a kind of palm. Is that true? One source even claimed the palm grew to 80 metres tall. I had always had the impression rattan comes from the short Mangrove tree, which grows in swampy seaside areas of the Malay archipelago,.