An ingenious telescoping handle features on this parasol, heralding the folding compact umbrellas of the 20th century. The slender silver handle is made in five sections, each slightly smaller in diameter so that they slide inside each other when the parasol is not in use. Hallmarks and inscriptions on the handle indicate the partnership behind the parasol’s manufacture. The handle was made by the London goldsmith George Creak and the rest of the parasol by Thomas Weeks. Weeks sold his finished products in a commercial establishment known as ‘Weeks’s Royal Mechanical Museum’ on Tichborne Street. This rather official title appears to be a purely commercial establishment; there is no evidence of royal patronage and items were for sale, rather than collection. George Creek (or possibly George Collins – their maker’s marks are similar) made other telescoping items for Weeks’s ‘museum’, including a telescoping toasting fork.