Hancocks of London occupies a singular position in the history of British jewellery: it is at once the oldest surviving independent jeweller on Bond Street, a house with documented royal and aristocratic patronage stretching back to the mid-nineteenth century, and — most distinctively — the sole official manufacturer of the Victoria Cross, Britain's supreme award for valour in the face of the enemy, a commission it has held without interruption since 1856. The firm's longevity, its unbroken association with the highest military decoration in the Commonwealth, and its sustained reputation for fine coloured-gemstone jewellery and antique pieces place it in a category apart from most of its contemporaries on the London luxury market.

Foundation and Early History

The house was established in 1849 by Charles Frederick Hancock, who had previously worked as a partner in the firm of Storr and Mortimer — itself one of the most prestigious silversmithing and jewellery businesses in Regency and early Victorian London. Hancock brought with him both technical expertise and a network of aristocratic clients. He opened his own premises at 39 Bruton Street, Mayfair, before later establishing the Bond Street address that remains the firm's home today. From its earliest years the business attracted commissions from the British nobility and, in time, from members of the royal family, earning it the standing of a court jeweller in all but formal title.

The Victorian period was a fertile era for a jeweller of Hancock's ambitions. The Great Exhibition of 1851, held in Hyde Park just two years after the firm's founding, had focused international attention on British craftsmanship and stimulated demand for elaborate jewellery set with the coloured gemstones — rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and the fashionable turquoise and coral of the period — that were arriving in increasing quantities from imperial trade routes. Hancocks positioned itself as a supplier of fine gem-set jewellery to clients who expected both quality of stone and quality of execution, a dual standard that has defined the house ever since.

The Victoria Cross Commission

The Victoria Cross was instituted by Royal Warrant on 29 January 1856, at the instigation of Queen Victoria herself, to recognise acts of conspicuous bravery by British and Commonwealth forces during the Crimean War. The cross is cast from the bronze of Russian cannon captured at Sevastopol — a provenance that has been maintained, with some documented interruptions and supplements, to the present day. Charles Frederick Hancock was appointed the original manufacturer, and the firm has retained that appointment through every subsequent conflict in which the decoration has been awarded, from the Indian Rebellion of 1857 through both World Wars to operations in the Falkland Islands and Afghanistan.

The physical specifications of the Victoria Cross are tightly controlled. The decoration measures approximately 41 mm across, is cast in a distinctive gunmetal bronze of notably dull finish, and bears on its obverse a crowned lion standing upon the Royal Crown above a scroll inscribed For Valour. The reverse carries the date of the act of bravery for which it is awarded. Hancocks maintains the dies and the casting process, and each cross is finished by hand. The weight of the metal, the precise texture of the surface, and the dimensions of the suspension bar and ring are all subject to specification. It is, in the strictest sense, a manufacturing commission rather than a design commission — the design having been fixed by royal authority in 1856 — but the craft responsibility involved in producing a decoration of such symbolic gravity is considerable, and the firm's stewardship of it is taken seriously.

The total number of Victoria Crosses awarded since 1856 is fewer than 1,400, making it among the rarest of all military decorations. Hancocks has cast every one of them. The firm also holds records relating to the awards and, on occasion, has been involved in the authentication of crosses that have come to the market or been presented for verification. Victoria Crosses are among the most actively collected of all militaria, and examples associated with named recipients and significant engagements regularly achieve substantial sums at auction.

Royal and Aristocratic Patronage

Hancocks' client list across its history has included members of the British royal family and a broad cross-section of the Victorian and Edwardian aristocracy. The firm supplied jewellery to clients connected with the courts of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, and its position on Bond Street — the established centre of London's luxury trade — ensured that it remained visible to successive generations of wealthy patrons. Royal Warrants, which are formal appointments granted by members of the royal family to suppliers of goods or services, have at various points been held by the firm, reflecting this sustained relationship with the Crown.

The nature of aristocratic jewellery commissions in the Victorian and Edwardian periods differed markedly from the retail trade. Clients brought their own stones — inherited gems removed from old-fashioned settings, purchases made abroad, or stones acquired at estate sales — and commissioned the jeweller to create new mounts. This practice, sometimes called remounting in the trade, required the jeweller to work closely with stones of varying quality, origin, and character, and to design settings that complemented the individual gem rather than following a standard pattern. Hancocks developed considerable expertise in this kind of bespoke work, and it remains a significant part of the firm's contemporary practice.

The Bond Street Premises and the Antique Trade

Hancocks' current premises at 52–53 Conduit Street (the firm has occupied various addresses in the Mayfair district over its history, with the Bond Street and Conduit Street addresses being closely associated in the trade's collective memory) present a particular combination unusual among London jewellers: the house deals in both newly commissioned jewellery and antique and period pieces, with a particular strength in Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Deco jewellery. This dual focus reflects the firm's own archival depth — it has, over more than 170 years, accumulated significant knowledge of period styles, hallmarking, and the gem-setting techniques of successive eras.

The antique jewellery market in London is concentrated in a small number of specialist dealers, and Hancocks is among the most respected. The firm's stock of period pieces is drawn from estate sales, private collections, and the broader trade, and is assessed against the same standards of gemstone quality and craftsmanship that govern its new commissions. Coloured stones feature prominently: fine old-cut rubies in closed-back gold settings, Edwardian platinum and diamond suites with calibré-cut sapphire accents, Art Deco bracelets set with carved emeralds in the Mughal taste, and Victorian parures incorporating the deep-toned amethysts and garnets that were fashionable in the mid-nineteenth century. These pieces are sold with the firm's authentication and, where relevant, with supporting documentation from recognised gemmological laboratories.

Coloured Gemstones and Gemmological Standards

For a house of Hancocks' standing, the quality of the coloured gemstones it handles is not incidental but central to its reputation. Victorian and Edwardian jewellers of the first rank sourced their stones through the London gem trade, which in the nineteenth century was the principal clearing house for gems arriving from Burma, Ceylon, India, Colombia, and Brazil. The finest Burmese rubies, Ceylon sapphires, and Colombian emeralds passed through London dealers and cutters before reaching the workshops of Bond Street jewellers, and a house with Hancocks' aristocratic clientele would have had access to material of the highest quality.

In contemporary practice, the firm's new commissions and its antique stock are assessed with the benefit of modern gemmological laboratory services. Significant coloured stones — particularly rubies, sapphires, and emeralds of notable size or quality — are submitted to recognised laboratories such as the Gübelin Gem Lab, the Swiss Gemmological Institute (SSEF), or Gemmological Institute of America (GIA) for origin determination and treatment disclosure. This is standard practice at the upper end of the London market and reflects the increased importance that collectors and institutional buyers place on documented provenance and treatment status. A Burmese ruby of unheated status, confirmed by laboratory report, commands a premium that can be several multiples of the price of a comparable stone of treated or uncertain origin, and a house dealing in fine coloured stones must be in a position to provide that documentation.

The firm's expertise in period jewellery also encompasses the identification of older treatments and enhancements that were common in earlier eras but are now disclosed differently. Victorian rubies were routinely oiled or surface-filled; Edwardian emeralds were almost universally oiled; early twentieth-century sapphires were sometimes heated using techniques that, while less sophisticated than modern high-temperature treatment, nonetheless altered the stone's colour. Hancocks' experience with period material informs its assessment of these pieces and its communication with buyers about what they are acquiring.

The Firm in the Contemporary Market

Hancocks entered the twenty-first century under the direction of Guy Burton, who joined the firm and became its public face in the contemporary trade press and at major jewellery fairs. Under his stewardship the house has maintained its dual identity as an antique jewellery specialist and a maker of new bespoke commissions, while also increasing its visibility through participation in events such as Masterpiece London, the annual fair at the Royal Hospital Chelsea that brings together leading dealers in art, antiques, and jewellery. The firm's presence at such events places it in direct comparison with the finest international dealers and confirms its standing at the upper level of the market.

The bespoke commission service continues to attract clients who wish to have fine stones — whether inherited, purchased separately, or sourced through the firm — set in new jewellery of lasting quality. Hancocks works with goldsmiths and setters who maintain the hand techniques that characterise fine jewellery of the traditional kind: hand-engraved mounts, millegrain edges, pavé settings executed by eye rather than by machine. These techniques are increasingly rare in an industry that has largely adopted computer-aided design and automated setting for volume production, and their preservation by a house of Hancocks' scale and reputation represents a genuine contribution to the continuity of craft knowledge.

The Victoria Cross commission, meanwhile, continues to anchor the firm's public identity in a way that no amount of fine jewellery alone could achieve. Each time the decoration is awarded — an event that, given its rarity, attracts considerable press attention — Hancocks is named as the manufacturer, and the firm's 1849 founding date is invariably cited. This association with the highest expression of military valour, maintained across more than 160 years and through every major conflict in which British and Commonwealth forces have been engaged, gives the house a historical weight that is unique in the jewellery trade.

Archive and Historical Significance

The firm's archive, accumulated over more than 170 years of continuous operation, constitutes a resource of considerable historical interest. Order books, correspondence, design drawings, and records of significant commissions document the tastes and purchasing habits of the British upper classes across the Victorian, Edwardian, and inter-war periods. Such archives are rare: many jewellery houses of comparable age were absorbed into larger groups, closed, or lost their records through the disruptions of the twentieth century. Hancocks' survival as an independent firm means that its archive has remained intact and in the custody of practitioners who understand its significance.

For historians of jewellery, dress, and material culture, the records of a Bond Street jeweller serving aristocratic and royal clients over such a span are primary sources of the first importance. They document which stones were fashionable at which moments, how gem prices moved in response to new discoveries and trade disruptions, and how the aesthetics of jewellery design shifted from the elaborate naturalism of the High Victorian period through the restrained classicism of the Edwardian era to the geometric abstraction of Art Deco. They also document the social history of jewellery: the pieces commissioned to mark coronations, marriages, and deaths; the stones reset when fashions changed or fortunes contracted; the gifts exchanged between members of the royal family and their circle.

Further Reading

• GIA Gems & Gemology — peer-reviewed gemmological research
• GIA: Ruby and Sapphire Origin Determination