Johann Christian Neuber is remembered as of the most important master of the Neoclassical hardstone-inlaid pieces which proved a success in his lifetime with the European enlightened aristocracy and royalty.

Neuber became a master goldsmith and burgher of Dresden in 1762 after an apprenticeship with Johann Friedrich Trechaon, a goldsmith of Swedish origin. Five years later he was named a court artisan to Friedrich Augustus III (1750-1827), Elector of Saxony and appointed as the Elector's court jeweler before 1775.
Taught about hardstones by Heinrich Taddel, his father-in-law and the director of the Grünes Gewölbe whom he succeeded in 1769, Neuber saw the artistic and commercial potential of using the many native stones of Saxony in his work. He developed the technique known as Zellenmosaic [cloisonné mosaic] at a time when mineralogy became popular. He advertised a wide range of small objects made from inlaid hardstones called Galantariewaren [useful but precious objects] including boxes, cane handles, watch cases, chatelaines, and jewelry which accounted for the majority of his production. His distinctive style was eventually counter-productive with a novelty-seeking public and by the end of the 1780s, his over-extended enterprise started to suffer severe financial problems, eventually forcing him to retire in 1805 in Eibenstock in his son’s house where he died on 2nd April 1808.

Neuber seems to have produced a relatively small number of cane handles and Alexis Kugel record seven, principally of two models: either tapering cylindrical or like this lot with a mushroom-shaped terminal. All are decorated with pattern similar to those used for snuff-boxes: vertical flutings, medallions centered with flowers or foliate festoons. Only two have this mushroom terminal with comparable motifs, one in the Grünes Gewölbe, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, although this example is a more elaborate version .