A rock crystal parasol handle with gold and enamel mounts, Anton Wildhack, Vienna, circa 1905, scratched inventory number 11(or H)7523

in Secessionist taste, the spherical knop incised with flowers and set with turquoises, the collar enamelled in translucent turquoise over wavy engine-turning within gold bands, wood shaft, with eight tips in original case for J. C. Vickery/ 178/ 181 & 183/ Regent St. W.

The firm of J. C. Vickery was founded around 1890 by John Collard Vickery in a short-lived partnership with Arthur Thomas Hobbs at 183 Regent Street.  Continuing alone after 1891, Vickery extended his premises in 1900 to 179, 181 and 183 Regent Street, with showrooms to the rear at 1 New Burlington Place, where in 1913 he is listed as a goldsmith, silversmith, jeweller, dressing case and fitted travelling bag manufacturer, watch and clock importer, etc., with Royal Warrants from the King and Queen, the King of Spain, the King and Queen of Denmark, the Queen of Norway and the King of Sweden.  The business filed for bankruptcy in 1930, the year of Vickery's death, and was acquired by James Walker Ltd.  (See J. Culme, The Directory of Gold and Silversmiths, Jewellers and Allied Traders, 1838-1914, vol. I, 1987, pp. 460-1.)