Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the penis; thus sceptre and jewels n., the male genitals.

a.1661		‘The Rebells Reign’ in Rump Poems and Songs (1662) i 315: Men were never so spic’d with the Sceptre of Christ / In the hands of a Saint in grain. / ’Twas brewed in their Hives by Citizens wives, / Who ventured their husbands far, / With Robin the fool, there was ne’re such a tool / To lead in the womens War.
1679		‘Colin’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 25: She knew his ways and could comply / With all decays of lechery; Had often licked his amorous sceptre / Until the jaded stallion leapt her.
a.1680		Rochester ‘A Panegyrick upon Nelly’ in Works of Rochester (1721) 66: Still did she dream [...] Of dangling scepters in her dirty Hand.
1684		Rochester (attrib.) Sodom I i: My Pintle onely shall my scepter bee.
1699		‘Song’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 235: Man is for the Woman made, / And the Woman made for Man / As the Sceptre to be sway’d / As for Night’s the Serenade, / As for Pudding is the Pan.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 47: Now night came on, the thund’rer led / His helpmate to her wicker bed; / There they agreed, and where’s the wonder, / His sceptre rais’d she soon knock’d under.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1902		D. St John Memoirs of Madge Buford 15: The ivory sceptre stood out rampant [Ibid.] 124: Noah and I had the brown and red sceptre in our grasp.
1948		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 508: So Phillip of France usurped the throne, / His scepter was the royal bone, With which he bitched / The Bastard King of England.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 50: the penis [...] scepter (camp; scepter and jewels = cock and balls).
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 58: With this magic sceptre [...] I’ll fill you.
1985		(con. 1968) D.A. Dye Citadel (1989) 330: Not a scratch on the family jewels or the scepter that goes with them.
1991		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 578: Well, old Saddam Hussein / Had the nerve to claim he’d stay, / He thought he’d wave his sceptre (hand-gesture of masturbating) / And the Corps would run away.

2. a horse-whip.

1824

Annals of Sporting 1 Feb. 90: Tom Whipcord [...] descended with true dignity from his throne — sceptre (i.e. whip) in hand.