Hancocks of London is one of the oldest continuously operating independent jewellery houses in Britain, with a history stretching back to 1849 and a Bond Street address that has remained its spiritual home for the greater part of its existence. The firm occupies a singular position in British cultural life: it is at once a purveyor of exceptional coloured-gemstone jewellery and antique pieces to private collectors and institutions, and the sole authorised manufacturer of the Victoria Cross — the United Kingdom's highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy — a commission it has held without interruption since 1856. That combination of artistic and civic distinction, sustained across more than 170 years, places Hancocks in a category largely its own among London's historic jewellery establishments.

Foundation and Early History

The house was founded in 1849 by Charles Frederick Hancock, who had previously trained and worked with the celebrated silversmith and jeweller John Samuel Hunt, a partner in the firm of Hunt & Roskell. Hunt & Roskell was itself the successor to Storr & Mortimer, one of the most prestigious silversmithing concerns of the Regency and early Victorian periods, so Hancock's formation was rooted in a lineage of exceptional British craftsmanship. Charles Frederick Hancock established his own premises at 39 Bruton Street, Mayfair, and rapidly built a reputation for fine jewellery, silver, and objets de vertu that attracted aristocratic and royal clients.

The firm's early decades coincided with the high Victorian period, a time of extraordinary appetite for elaborate jewellery set with coloured gemstones — rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and the newly fashionable demantoid garnets and alexandrites arriving from Russian deposits. Hancocks was well placed to serve this market, combining technical accomplishment in setting with access to fine stones through the established London gem trade.

The Victoria Cross Commission

The Victoria Cross was instituted by Royal Warrant on 29 January 1856, backdated to cover acts of valour during the Crimean War. The decoration is cast from the bronze of cannon captured at Sevastopol — a material specification that has been maintained, with documented continuity, to the present day. The metal used for the crosses is traditionally said to derive from a small store of Sevastopol cannon metal held at the Royal Logistic Corps' facility at Donnington, though the precise provenance of successive batches has been a subject of careful historical enquiry.

Hancocks was appointed to manufacture the Victoria Cross from the outset of the award's production and has remained the sole manufacturer ever since. Each cross is cast individually, finished by hand, and inspected to exacting standards before delivery to the Ministry of Defence. The production of the Victoria Cross is not a commercial undertaking in any ordinary sense; the quantities involved are necessarily small — fewer than 1,400 crosses have been awarded in the decoration's entire history — and the commission is regarded by the firm as a matter of national trust rather than commercial advantage. The association has nonetheless been central to Hancocks' identity and public recognition for over a century and a half.

The reverse of each cross is engraved with the recipient's name, rank, regiment, and the date of the act of valour. This engraving work, like the casting and finishing, is carried out by Hancocks' craftsmen, making the firm responsible for the complete physical realisation of Britain's most distinguished military honour.

Royal Patronage and Institutional Clients

Hancocks held a Royal Warrant during the Victorian era and maintained close associations with the royal household and the aristocracy throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The firm supplied jewellery and silver to clients at the highest levels of British society, and its archive — portions of which have been exhibited and published — documents commissions from named members of the peerage and from institutions connected to the Crown.

Royal patronage in the Victorian period was not merely ceremonial; it signalled to the broader market that a firm's standards of workmanship and material quality had been subjected to the most exacting scrutiny. For Hancocks, the combination of royal association and the Victoria Cross commission gave the house a dual prestige — artistic and civic — that few contemporaries could match.

The Bond Street Presence

Hancocks relocated to Burlington Arcade and subsequently to its long-established address at 52 Burlington Arcade, before settling at its current location on Albemarle Street, in the heart of Mayfair's historic jewellery and art district. The firm's proximity to Bond Street — the acknowledged centre of London's luxury jewellery trade — has kept it within the ecosystem of major auction houses, private dealers, and international collectors who constitute the primary market for important antique and estate jewellery.

The current premises reflect the firm's dual character: a working jeweller's atelier capable of bespoke commissions and restoration, and a gallery-like retail environment in which antique and period jewellery of the highest quality is presented alongside contemporary pieces in the house's own style. The aesthetic sensibility is conservative in the best sense — attentive to historical precedent, sceptical of novelty for its own sake, and consistently focused on the quality of the stones and the integrity of the setting.

Specialisation in Coloured Gemstones and Antique Jewellery

Hancocks has, over its long history, developed particular expertise in the handling and mounting of fine coloured gemstones. The firm's stock at any given time typically includes Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, and Art Deco pieces of documented provenance, alongside bespoke contemporary commissions executed in period-sympathetic styles. The emphasis is consistently on material quality: stones of notable colour, clarity, and origin, set in mounts that demonstrate technical accomplishment rather than decorative excess.

Among the coloured stones most associated with the house's aesthetic are the deep-hued rubies and sapphires favoured by Victorian jewellers, old-cut diamonds in closed-back and open-back settings, and the naturalistic enamel and gem-set pieces characteristic of the high Victorian and Arts and Crafts traditions. The firm has handled pieces by named Victorian makers — including work attributable to the workshops of Carlo Giuliano and other notable nineteenth-century jewellers — and has on occasion offered pieces with documented royal or aristocratic provenance.

In the contemporary bespoke market, Hancocks is known for working closely with clients to source stones of specific quality parameters — origin, treatment status, and colour grade — before designing mounts that complement rather than compete with the gem. This approach, rooted in the gemmological tradition of stone-led design, distinguishes the firm from houses whose identity is primarily defined by a signature aesthetic applied uniformly across their output.

The Firm in the Modern Trade

Hancocks participates in the major London antique jewellery fairs, including Masterpiece London, and maintains relationships with the principal London auction houses — Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams — both as a buyer of important pieces and as a source of expertise and provenance research. The firm's longevity means that its archive and institutional memory constitute a genuine resource for the authentication and historical contextualisation of Victorian and Edwardian jewellery.

The house has been owned and directed in the modern period by Guy Burton, who joined the firm in the 1990s and has guided it through a period of renewed interest in antique and estate jewellery driven partly by the global expansion of the luxury market and partly by growing collector awareness of the superior material quality — particularly in terms of gemstone cutting and metal craftsmanship — characteristic of pre-twentieth-century pieces. Under Burton's stewardship, Hancocks has maintained its commitment to the antique and period market while developing its bespoke contemporary offering.

The Victoria Cross commission continues to be fulfilled by the firm's craftsmen, and Hancocks has on occasion been called upon to manufacture replacement crosses for recipients whose original decorations have been lost or stolen — a process that requires close liaison with the Ministry of Defence and adherence to the original specifications in every material respect.

Significance in the History of British Jewellery

The history of Hancocks is, in several respects, a condensed history of the British fine jewellery trade over the past century and three-quarters. The firm's foundation in the immediate aftermath of the Great Exhibition of 1851 — which showcased British jewellery and silversmithing to an international audience — placed it at the beginning of a period of sustained ambition and technical achievement in the London trade. Its survival through the disruptions of two world wars, the social transformations of the twentieth century, and the consolidation of the luxury market by large international conglomerates is a testament to the enduring demand for jewellery that combines historical depth with material integrity.

The Victoria Cross commission, in particular, gives Hancocks a place in British national history that transcends the jewellery trade. The crosses manufactured by the firm are objects of profound symbolic weight, each one representing an act of extraordinary courage, and the responsibility of their production has shaped the firm's institutional culture in ways that are difficult to quantify but unmistakable in the seriousness with which the commission is approached.

For collectors and students of jewellery history, Hancocks represents a direct link to the Victorian tradition of fine gemstone jewellery — a tradition characterised by exceptional material standards, accomplished hand craftsmanship, and a design sensibility rooted in historical ornament rather than abstract modernism. The firm's archive, its continuing bespoke practice, and its role in the antique jewellery market collectively make it one of the most significant institutional presences in the London trade.

Further Reading

• Hancocks London — Official Website
• Gems & Gemology — GIA's Peer-Reviewed Quarterly