Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hancock, Robert
HANCOCK, ROBERT (1730–1817), engraver, was born in Staffordshire in 1730. He studied under Ravenet, and was at first engaged as an engraver at the Battersea. Enamel Works under Alderman Jansen. A watch-back of this enamel with a garden tea-party scene printed in transfer by him is reproduced in Jewitt's ' Ceramic Art,' p. 137, fig. 518. In 1756 or 1757 he became draughtsman and engraver to the Worcester Porcelain Works, and engraved numerous plates for the transfer-printed china for which those works at that time began to be celebrated. He was one of the proprietors of the works from 3 March 1772 till 31 Oct. 1774, when he sold his share, a sixth of the concern, for 900l., in consequence of disputes with the other partners. He retained, however, till January 1804 his property in a house built by Holdship on the works, which he had purchased from the mortgagees in 1769. Hancock on the transfer-printed Worcester porcelain uses the signature (R. Hancock (or 'Hancock') fecit.' The signature 'R. H.' in monogram, accompanied by an anchor, which occurs on ware of this class, has also been supposed to be Hancock's (Cat. of Pottery, Mus. Practical Geology, 3rd ed. pp. 219-20 ; Jewitt, Ceramic Art, p. 137); but according to Chaffers (Marks and Monograms, 1886, pp. 711, 722 ; cp. Hooper and Phillips, Manual of Marks, p. 184) this is the mark of Richard Holdship of the Worcester works. Hancock's name and this monogram sometimes occur together on the same piece of china. Hancock was doubtless the engraver of the original plate, and Holdship the transfer printer of it (see Chaffers, op. cit. p. 712). Binns in his (Century of Potting 'reproduces several of Hancock's works, e.g. an engraving of ruins (often printed on Worcester tea and dinner services, pi. i.); a horserace (on punch-bowls, pi. ii.); freemasons' arms (often on jugs and mugs, pl. iii.); scene at a well (pl. v.); other engravings in plates iv. vi. viii. Hancock's work is often delicate and pleasing. His favourite subjects are garden-scenes, milkmaid-scenes, and figures and half-lengths (especially of Frederick the Great) . A plate engraved by Hancock, from which some of the best examples of Worcester china have been printed, was discovered at Coalport by Mr. Jewitt, and was represented (together with 'Blind Man's Buff,' another engraving by Hancock) in the first edition of his 'Ceramic Art.' On leaving the Worcester works in 1774 Hancock probably took his plates with him. Hancock is next supposed to have gone to the Staffordshire Potteries, but (according to Redgrave, Dict. of Artists) on losing his savings by a bank failure he devoted himself to engraving in mezzotint. He engraved, after Sir J. Reynolds, portraits of General William Kingsley, Lady Chambers, Miss Day (Lady Fenhoulet), Mark Noble (1784); after J. Wright of Frome, portraits of W. Hopley, verger of Worcester Cathedral, of J. Wright, and of himself (Hancock), and a portrait of John Wesley (1790), after J. Miller. In the latter part of his life he was living in Bristol, and there, about 1796, drew small crayon portraits (engraved by R. Woodman for J. Cottie's 'Reminiscences') of Lamb, Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge. These were purchased for the National Portrait Gallery in 1877 (Scharf, Cat. Nat. Portrait Gallery). Hancock also engraved many of the plates in Valentine Green's 'History of Worcester,' and the plates in a folio bible published by Pearson & Rollason of Birmingham. He died in October 1817, in his eighty-seventh year. Valentine Green and James Ross, the line-engraver, were pupils of Hancock.
[Binns's Century of Potting in Worcester; Chaffers's Marks and Monograms; Jewitt's Ceramic Art; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of English School.]