Object Description
The best of the best! This stupendous vase is outstanding in size, weight and superlative quality. Designed by the talented sculptor H H Armstead, this valuable exhibition trophy was made by the goldsmith Charles Frederick Hancock to represent Britain at the World International Exhibitions popular during the mid-19th century. The strikingly beautiful silver presentation piece has a tapering urn form embellished with parcel gilt highlights and twin figural handles. All topped by a pull off lid. The unique decorative detail includes a large 3-dimensional English Civil War diorama with Roundheads and Cavaliers on horseback. The tall cast handles are modelled as winged females with arms outstretched and standing on the head of a roaring mythical beast. The spreading circular base is adorned with cast mythical sea creatures, scrolling leaves, and two domed heart-shaped cartouches inscribed with initials. On the reverse is an engraved armorial for Sir David Baxter (1793-1872), First Baronet of Kilmaron, within a three dimensional cartouche.
Weight 7090g, 228oz
Height 65cm, 25½in. Diameter approx 28cm.
Maker Charles Frederick Hancock.
London 1866.
Designed and modelled by Henry Hugh Armstead (1828-1905).
Sterling silver.
The Goodwood Cup of 1855 (part of the Goodwood Race Plate trio), by H. J Hancock is remarkably similar to this cup.
Designer. Henry Hugh Armstead (British, 1828-1905). Sculptor, illustrator, engraver and artist. An acclaimed designer of spectacular silverware, he worked for Hunt & Roskell and H. J Hancock. In 1863 Armstead progressed his career to create sculptural decorations and relief panels for various prestigious buildings and took an active role in the work of the Academy.
Arms. Sir David Baxter, 1st Baronet (1793–1872), born in Dundee to William Baxter, linen manufacturer. When Sir David joined the family business in 1826 he mechanised production and the company quickly grew to become one of the largest textile producers in the world. Sir David was amassed a sizable fortune and became a known educational philanthropist. He was made 1st Baronet of Kilmaron County Fife in 1863.
Well known in his native town for acts of philanthropy, especially the donation, along with his two sisters, of the 37 acre park on the outskirts of Dundee. The engraved monograms on the base of the vase (DB and MEB) may be those of his sisters Mary and Eleanor Baxter.
Sir David Baxter had no children, and the baronetage became extinct on his death in 1872.
Maker: Charles Frederick Hancock
Charles Frederick Hancock (1807 – 1891)
As a young man, possibly around 1830, Charles Hancock moved to London to try his luck in the jewellery and silversmith business. Evidently he forged a successful career with leading London jewellers Paul Storr and John Mortimer.
Following the retirement of the two principals, their business was subsumed into the firm Hunt and Roskell, a successful jewellery business under that name until the 1960s. CFH became a partner ‘by purchase’ in Hunt and Roskell on 1 January 1843 where he consolidated his reputation and built a network of contacts among royalty and aristocracy throughout Europe and the Near East. When Hancock broke with Hunt and Roskell in 1848 to found his own business, his priceless contact book would have been the envy of his competitors at home and abroad.
Popular, charismatic, energetic, astute. Hancock’s shop in Bruton Street received many very prestigious clients over the years. Such was the quality of his work that on 13th August 1849, only eight months after establishing his own business, he was awarded the Royal Warrant of appointment from Queen Victoria. He was awarded the sole manufacturing rights to the Victoria Cross in 1856. However Hancock wasn’t one to sit back and wait for business. In addition to his travelling salesman method, he committed the company to all the big international trade fairs in Europe, starting with Hyde Park’s Great Exhibition of 1851 when the company was still in its infancy. There followed Paris (1855), London (1862) Paris Universal Exhibition (1867) Vienna (1867).
These shows lasted many months, yet Hancock always committed his leading men to the long stay far from home. It was worth it. From the start, Hancocks won many prestigious awards and medals, often exclusively.
Charles Hancock was a thoroughly modern entrepreneur, even by 20th and 21st Century standards. Nor did he let ego get in the way of business. Realising he couldn’t do it all on his own, he recruited some talented hard-working salesmen not unlike himself and imbued in them what we might call the Hancock Way. These were Henry John Dore (1832 – 1895) and Horatio Stewart (1826 – 1907) (see below). The three men led the firm from strength to strength.
After about 25 years of living above the shop, so to speak, in Mayfair, on 17 July 1866, Hancock signed a 21 year lease on Hendon Hall and farmlands in North London at £500 pa. In 1870 he purchased the Hendon Hall estate outright for £30,200 (close to £2 million in 2017 (BNA)). He threw himself and the family into local community affairs, becoming very much the local worthy.
C.F. Hancock died on 10 February 1891, aged 83. His executors, the law firm, H.F. Baxter* valued his estate at ‘over’ £63,000 which is the equivalent in 2017 prices to £5.2 million according to the British National Archive. Hancock was interred in the family vault at Hendon churchyard on Saturday 14 February. The funeral, although private, was a lavish affair. According to the Hendon and Finchley Times, the route of the cortege was lined with hundreds of local well-wishers who knew the deceased over the 25 years that the family had lived in Hendon.
Hancock’s widow, Maria Jane (née Edington) died on 8 August 1897, aged 75. Her estate was vaued at £30,851, 2017 equivalent of £2.4 million in 2017, according to the BNA.
Extracted from Hancocks – Our Story in Full
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