Robert Hancock (1730–1817) was an English engraver.

Life

Hancock was born in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, studied under

Simon François Ravenet Simon François Ravenet (1706 – c. 4 April 1764) was a French engraver. In Britain he is usually termed Simon Francis Ravenet. He was one of William Hogarth's assistants. Biography He was born in Paris, where he studied engraving under Ja ...

, and was at first engaged as an engraver at the Battersea Enamel Works under Stephen Theodore Janssen. In 1756 or 1757 he became draughtsman and engraver to the Worcester Porcelain Works, and engraved plates for the

transfer-printed Transfer printing is a method of decorating pottery or other materials using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. Fleming, John & Hugh Hon ...

china for which the works became known. He was one of the proprietors of the works from 3 March 1772 till 31 October 1774, when he sold his share, after disputes with the other partners. He retained, however, till January 1804 his property in a house built by Richard Holdship on the works, which he had purchased from the mortgagees in 1769. On leaving the Worcester works in 1774, Hancock is next supposed to have gone to the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of cer ...

. It is said that on losing his savings in a bank failure he concentrated on engraving in

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonali ...

. In the latter part of his life he was living in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

. He died in October 1817, in his eighty-seventh year.

Valentine Green Valentine Green (3 October 173929 July 1813) was a British mezzotinter and print publisher. Green trained under Robert Hancock, a Worcester engraver, after which he moved to London and began working as a mezzotint engraver. He began to exhibit ...

and James Ross the line-engraver were his pupils.

Works

Hancock on the transfer-printed Worcester porcelain uses the signature "R.H", "R.H.fecit", "R.Hancock fecit Worcester", "R. Hancock" (or just Hancock) "fecit", and other variations. The mark of Richard Holdship of the Worcester works was an anchor rebus, and the two marks sometimes occur together on the same piece of porcelain. Hancock's work often involved garden-scenes, milkmaid-scenes, and figures and half-lengths (especially of

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

). After switching to the medium of paper, Hancock engraved, after

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

, portraits of General William Kingsley, Lady Chambers, Miss Day (Lady Fenhoulet), Mark Noble (1784); after

Joseph Wright of Derby Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution". Wr ...

, portraits of William Hopley, verger of Worcester Cathedral, of Wright, and of himself; and a portrait of

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...

(1790), after J. Miller. About 1796, in Bristol, he drew small crayon portraits engraved by

Richard Woodman Captain Richard Martin Woodman LVO (born 1944) is an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37-year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full-time. Writing His main work is 14 novels about the car ...

for

Joseph Cottle Joseph Cottle (1770–1853) was an English publisher and author. Cottle started business in Bristol. He published the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey on generous terms. He then wrote in his ''Early Recollections'' an exposur ...

's ''Reminiscences'': of

Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his ''Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book ''Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–18 ...

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

Robert Southey Robert Southey ( or ; 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) was an English poet of the Romantic school, and Poet Laureate from 1813 until his death. Like the other Lake Poets, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Southey began as a ra ...

, and

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

. These were purchased for the National Portrait Gallery in 1877. Hancock also engraved plates in Valentine Green's ''History of Worcester'', and the plates in a folio bible published by Pearson & Rollason of Birmingham.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Hancock, Robert 1730 births 1817 deaths English engravers