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The silver mount to the ivory handle is stamped KINGSTON & LORD MELB. Following his father Robert’s occupation, Edward Kingston (c 1841–1934) opened an umbrella shop in the late 1870s in the Royal Arcade, later operating in Swanston St ‘opposite the Town Hall porch’, with a factory at Collingwood. Kingston and Richard Lord formed a partnership which was dissolved in May 1892, the business continuing as E Kingston & Co. 

When Edward Kingston retired in 1912, the firm, run by his son Edward Birch Kingston (1879–1960) and Richard Lord (c 1861– 1935), reverted to ‘Kingston and Lord’ from 1912 until 1929. 

Ned Kelly’s helmet carved with the bullet marks that provide an accurate identifier of both the helmet and the vizor. Enigmatically Kelly must have turned when wounded receiving four bullets neatly grouped in the back of the head. Circa 1900 by Kingston & Lord walking stick makers Melbourne with tapered octagonal tiger blackwood stick and original ferrule. The location in Melbourne of the helmet at this time is unknown. 

The accuracy of the carved detail displayed by this ivory walking stick handle makes a considered addition to the research into this particularly complex subject. Hare died in 1892 when Treede who gave his occupation on his citizenship certificate as ivory carver. He was working in partnership with Prenzel as: Treede & Prenzel, architectural modellers, designers and woodcarvers, in Melbourne.