Robert Hancock (c. 1731-1817), Birmingham & the Worcestershire Potteries

1: Mezzotint print of Robert Hancock by Hancock, c. 1770.
British Museum Collection.

Robert Hancock worked as an engraver throughout his life, and produced engravings for paper prints, as well as those for transfer printing onto enamel and porcelain. He moved all over the Midlands and was important to many areas printing history, mainly in this contribution to transfer printing. Birmingham, for example, was highly influential in the innovation of transfer printing onto enamel in the early 1750s and Hancock was significant in this. He then moved to the Worcestershire potteries and innovated the process further on porcelain.

Hancock was born in about 1731 and was apprenticed to the Birmingham engraver George Anderton in 1745 for a £30 indenture.*1* Apprenticeships lasted for about seven years, meaning that Hancock would have been with Anderton till about 1752. This was at the height of innovation in transfer printing in Birmingham.

2: Print on paper made for transfer printing (because it's in reverse)
probably by Robert Hancock, c. 1761. 
Held at British Museum.

Printing On Enamels
During Hancock's apprenticeship with Anderton, he would have learnt his trade producing traditional prints on paper, with Anderton engraving maps and other paper prints. In the late 1740s Birmingham engravers and enamellers began experimenting with printing the same copperplate prints onto the glossy surface of enamel - a vitreous material made using powdered glass fused to a surface through firing. Unsurprisingly, the ability to print onto such a shiny surface was difficult, and wondered at. Hancock was among the early few who were part of developing the process. He was already a highly proficient engraver, and this is why his name is remembered whilst other local engravers remain anonymous.

3: Lid of transfer printed box, thought to be by Hancock, c. 1755. 
EM47

Printing On Porcelain
A modern note included with Hancock's portrait (fig 1, top) states that 'He discover'd the art of printing on china', which suggests that he developed the skills he had learnt in the enamel trade for the porcelain trade.*0* A teapot held at the V&A (fig 4, below) is thought to have been produced in Birmingham in the early 1750s. The porcelain is Chinese, but it is transfer printed in black with a green wash. The wash was likely used to hide imperfections in the process, so represents early experimentation, possibly (so, speculation only) done by Hancock. 

4: Porcelain teapot with transfer print and wash,
probably printed in Birmingham, c. 1750-1755.
V&A Collection.

Speculation About Other Print
It was also stated that Hancock 'engrav'd the first plate that was us'd for callico printing'.*0* This is an odd assertion because calico printing was a well-established craft by Hancock's time which used wooden blocks to make the prints. Perhaps Hancock used copperplates rather that the traditional woodblocks, but wallpaper at Doddington Hall in Lincolnshire is adorned with a design found on enamel and porcelain produced by Hancock, his L'Amour design (wallpaper below (fig. 5), enamel above (fig. 3)). It dates from about 1760 and is woodblock printed, so perhaps Hancock was asked to produce copperplate designs for it, which were then translated into wood to make the wallpaper.

5: Wallpaper (colour woodblock print) from Doddington Hall, c. 1760.
V&A Collection.

Move to the Worcester Potteries
Hancock moved from Birmingham to Worcester in the late 1750s, and in the latter town he was employed by the porcelain factories, seemingly by the Bow factory first and then the Worcester Porcelain factory. This move can be followed through objects, such as the three below. The first is an enamel box which was probably made in Birmingham in the early 1750s and is signed R. H.. It was transfer printed and overpainted. The latter two saucers include a similar design, and were made at the Worcester porcelain factories.

6: Enamel box marked R. H. depicting a couple having tea, c. 1752.
Transfer printed, probably in Birmingham by Robert Hancock, and overpainted.
V&A Collection.

7: Transfer printed saucer with the same central image,
produced at the Bow Factory, c. 1755-1757.
British Museum.

8: Tranfer printed saucer with the same central image,
produced at the Worcester Porcelain Factory, c. 1760.
British Museum.

In 1765, Robert was a master engraver in Worcester and took on an apprentice John Lowick for the princely sum of £100. He remained in Worcester till about 1774. 

After Worcester & Back to Birmingham
Writing in 1878, Llewellynn Frederick W. Jewitt states that Hancock moved to the Caughley factory in Shropshire after Worcester, because several Hancock designs are found on Caughley porcelain (fig. 9, below, and parrot design).*2*

9: Design found on Caughley porcelain, with the same design found on enamel (fig. 3)
and porcelain by Hancock. From The ceramic art of Great Britain [...]. 

This is highly likely, as Hancock can be traced living in Bridgnorth in the late 1770s, about seven miles from Caughley.

By 1784 it is also likely that Hancock had returned to Birmingham. That year, Hancock engraved the frontispiece of Mark Noble's book Memoirs of [...] Cromwell which was printed in Birmingham by Pearson and Rollason.*3* Hancock appeared in local directories between about 1787 and 1792, the latter being the same year which he bondsman to his eldest daughter's marriage licence in Birmingham.*4* His residence was on Moat Row, which was part of Birmingham's printing district in the eighteenth century.*5* Robert's son, Thomas, remained in Birmingham as an engraver, producing prints and engraving some of the plates for James Bisset's Magnificent Directory.*6*

10: Frontispiece of Memoirs of [...] Cromwell by Noble.

Retirement
Hancock retired to Brislington in Somerset, situated between Bristol and Bath, where he wrote his will in 1811 and passed away in 1817.*6* It is uncertain when he moved there, but he produced a print published in Bath in 1800.*7* He also either lived or worked in London, and produced drawings of notables such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey and William Wordsworth in the late 1790s which he translated to saleable prints.*8* The pencil and chalk drawings Hancock made of these individuals were certainly produced in person, showing the renown which he had gained in his trade.


Notes
Written by Dr. Jen Dixon, copyright 2023.
*0* A contemporary slip of paper included with the portrait (top of the post) explained: 'Mr Robt Hancock, engraver, of the City of Worcester - He discover'd the art of printing on china. he engrav'd the first plate that was us'd for callico printing [sic]. He has engrav'd many portraits for countrey [sic] booksellers and others. Mr Valentine Green serv'd his apprenticeship to this man. This mezzotinto, from a picture by Mr Wright, is an essay of his own, but not approving it, he destroy'd the plate, reserving this only impression. There is no other portrait of him'. Included with print of Robert Hancock, c. 1770s, British Museum, 1902,1011.2455.
*1* Family history research, see WikiTree; apprenticeship of Robert son of John Hancock to George Anderton engraver of Birmingham £30, 28 January1745, National Archives, IR/1/17 fo. 184. 
*2* Llewellynn Frederick W. Jewitt, The ceramic art of Great Britain, from pre-historic times, 2 vols (London: Virtue & Co., 1878), I, pp. 272-273.
*3* Mark Noble, Memoirs of the Protectorate-house of Cromwell (Birmingham: Pearson and Rollason, 1784).
*4* The witnessing of his daughter's marriage proves that this is the same Robert Hancock who worked at the Worcester factories, because his eldest daughter, Philippa Hancock, was baptised on Worcester, see sourced WikiTree page.
*5* 'Hancock, Rob., Engraver, Moat Row', in: The Universal British Directory (London: British Directory Office, 1792), II, p. 221.
*6* Thomas Hancock was named as son and engraver of Birmingham in: will of Robert Hancock of Brislington, Somerset, gentleman, written 30 September 1811 and proved 27 November 1817, National Archives, PROB 11/1598; Jenni Dixon?.
*7* Portrait of Venanzio Rauzzini, 1800, British Museum, 1889,0409.213.
*8* Pencil and chalk drawings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey and William Wordsworth by Robert Hancock, 1796-1798, NPG, 452, 451 and 450. 
* Susan Benjamin, English Enamel Boxes from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (London: Orbis Publishing Limited, 1978).
- Porcelain Works, 8001/2/4/1/2: http://e-services.worcestershire.gov.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=8001%2f2%2f4%2f1%2f2&pos=13
- https://archive.org/details/transferprinting00turn