Historic jewellery firm Hancocks, now in its new St James’s home, specialises in old-cut diamonds pieces that gleam and turn heads even in low light.
Hancocks built its legacy has built over the past 175 years and established an international reputation as curators of the rarest and finest jewellery. It was in 1849 that Charles Frederick Hancock set up his eponymous jewellery business on the corner of Bond Street and Bruton Street in London. Dealing in the finest jewellery and gemstones, he quickly built a reputation for excellence.
Sparklers: the finest collection of vintage Asscher-cut diamonds.
Within a year of trading, he had been granted a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria and by 1856 he’d been tasked with creating the newly introduced Victoria Cross Medal, the highest honour that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth Armed Forces for gallantry in active service. To this day, Hancocks holds the unique distinction of being the only firm to have ever produced the Victoria Cross.
Although times have certainly changed since then, Hancocks remain one of the oldest British family-owned jewellers in London, now belonging to the Burton family, and recently moved the firm into its current location, a five-storey Georgian townhouse on St. James’s Street.
The new Hancocks’ shop in St James’s
Managing director Guy Burton says of the move: ‘It feels both authentic and deeply meaningful that we go back to being what we were originally known as: one of the world’s foremost independent jewellery houses.’
Each floor of the Georgian townhouse has been meticulously curated to tell a distinctive story through the jewellery on display, with each gallery named after a previous Hancocks location. On the ground-floor Sackville Gallery, clients can view a wide selection of jewellery together with Hancocks’ extensive library of jewellery books, historical diaries and a curation of historic tiaras and notable pieces from the brand’s archive collection.
Hancocks offer a remarkable collection of vintage jewels from the finest houses.
On the first floor’s Bruton Gallery, visitors are able to preview a remarkable collection of vintage, antique and signed pieces from the world’s best jewellery houses, with the second floor’s Burlington Gallery dedicated to Hancocks’ collection of old-cut diamonds and important gemstones all in one-of-a-kind handcrafted settings, designed by the company.
As one of the world’s leading jewellers specialising in old-cut diamonds, Hancocks’ belief is that the older style of cutting produced a vastly superior stone aesthetically and each one has a unique beauty and romantic charm that set this striking jewellery collection apart.
Catch the light with with an old European-cut three-stone ring.
The diamonds in this curated collection were cut during the 19th and early 20th centuries. At this time, all stone-cutting was done by hand and eye, and it would take years for a cutter to become skilled and experienced enough to be able to ‘see’ into a rough crystal and know just how to facet it to realise the full beauty of the gem. Like Michelangelo releasing David from the marble, these cutters worked to remove the unwanted parts of the rough material to reveal the inherent beauty of diamonds in all their glory.
The stones Hancocks selects are the best of the best and diamonds as lovely as these can only be the result of the most exceptionally skilled diamond cutters. All of Hancocks’ antique cut diamonds are unique in their combinations of shape, cut and proportions. The company uses old mine cuts with their beautiful, rounded cushion shapes, old pear-shape brilliants and old European cuts, vintage carré and Asscher cuts — and it is also very fond of a French cut.
Jewellery history in the Sackville Gallery.
Generally speaking, old-cut diamonds tend to have a smaller table (the flat facet at the top of the stone), a higher crown and an open or polished culet. This often means they have a deeper profile than modern diamonds, but this extra depth enables them to display a huge amount of coloured fire and life. This is the case even in dimly lit environments, where the higher crown and the larger pavilion facets mean that the old-cut diamonds pick up on even very low levels of lighting; they were of course initially designed to look as magnificent by candlelight as they were in daylight.
Sparklers: the finest collection of vintage Asscher-cut diamonds.
Hancocks has built longstanding relationships with the USA and so is well-placed to make the process of purchasing as easy as possible for American clients. Hancocks is not only a business, but a heritage of excellence passed down through generations.
All that glistens: a striking pair of old-cut diamond
drop earrings.
For further information and prices, please visit www.hancocks-london.com or telephone 020–7493 8904, WhatsApp: +44 7977 500504 Instagram @hancocks_london
