With the scroll of the Freedom of London; gold-tooled brown leather case lined with crimson silk and plush, stamped: Fasano-Torino General Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882) was a driving force of the Italian Risorgimento who helped realise, in 1860, the unification of the various states of the Italian peninsula under Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia. His heroic exploits – recounted in the British press – had assured him cult status in England, such that when he visited in April 1864 it was inevitable that he would meet with a rapturous reception. Aristocrats and politicians of all persuasions vied to entertain him – Harriet, dowager Duchess of Sutherland (1806–1868) caused eyebrows to be raised when she allegedly invited the general to her private boudoir at Stafford House for a cigar. In the streets the working classes thronged to see him – the Spectator of 16 April 1864 noted that ‘The enthusiasm manifested was extreme, and as there were no soldiers out, the carriage was five-hours making its way from Nine Elms to Stafford House’. Not untouched by the universal frenzy, the City of London resolved to present the Freedom of the City to the general, ‘the most generous, brave and disinterested of patriots’. The fashionable firm of Charles Frederick Hancock was commissioned to provide the gold box ‘of the value of one hundred guineas’. As it was only given two weeks’ notice, the firm was obliged to adapt a freedom box that had been made nearly one hundred years previously: a new panel engraved with the presentation inscription  was set on the inside lid, and the front side was applied with a five-pointed star overlaid with a diamond-set initial G. The Illustrated London News published an illustration of the presentation ceremony, recording that the box was ‘a massive gold one ornamented by garlands of flowers and the arms of the city of London on the lid’. Sometime after the presentation, the gem-set initial G was removed. Charles Frederick Hancock was born in 1808, the son of Charles Hancock (d. 1849), retail jeweller and silversmith of New Street, Birmingham, and his wife, Sophia, née Morgan. He joined Storr & Mortimer, the manufacturing and retail jewellers and goldsmiths of 156 New Bond Street, London, of which he eventually became a partner with John Mortimer (1790– 1871) and John Samuel Hunt (1786–1865), trading as Mortimer & Hunt until Mortimer’s retirement in 1843 and thereafter as Hunt & Roskell. Hancock became an expert in pearls and gemstones and travelled widely. In fact, it is thought that he was responsible for establishing the firm’s short-lived New York branch. In 1849 C. F. Hancock withdrew from Hunt & Roskell and established his own retail and manufacturing jewellery and silver business at 39 Bruton Street, on the corner of New Bond Street. The firm traded under Hancock’s name until his partial retirement in 1866, when it was renamed Hancock, Son & Co. C. F. Hancock retired altogether on 31 December 1869, after which the firm became Hancocks & Co. The business survives today at 52–53 Burlington Arcade, London. In 1842 C. F. Hancock married Maria Jane Edington (1821–1897), whose father, John James Edington (1798–1882), was a manufacturing jeweller and goldsmith in Portland Street, Soho. He died at his home, Hendon Hall, Hendon, Middlesex, in 1891. One curious detail: as part of the lining of the box Hancock used an old invitation of one of the firm’s competitors, Robert Garrard, for an event held in Willis’s Rooms (Almack’s Assembly Rooms), St James’s, in 1859.

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