A colour print of 'The Steam-car' by Hancock 1833. It depicts one of Walter Hancock’s early steam-powered road vehicles in the street in front of a row of houses. The steam-car resembles a coach, with four wheels and a driver seated at the front. Two passengers sit at the windows, and a man up a ladder leaning against the side of the car watches a boy repair the roof fabric. Some onlookers stand around with luggage. The print is captioned ‘the steam-car by HANCOCK said “ERA” on the regular line LONDON GREENWICH (1833)’, and is unframed.

Walter Hancock began developing steam powered vehicles in 1827, and introduced models to serve as public shuttle seating around 10 passengers in order to win over the public and demonstrate the vehicle’s safety. The Era, depicted here, was introduced in Greenwich in 1832. In 1838, Hancock released his book ‘Narrative of Twelve Years Experiments, 1824-36, Demonstrative of the Practicality and Advantage of Employing Steam Carriages on Common Roads’. ‘Narrative’ contained accounts of Hancock’s experiments in the development of steam-powered road locomotives, beginning with the invention of a novel steam engine that used ‘lungs’ made of rubberised canvas.

This object is part of a collection relating to the Hancock family, acquired in 2018 from a descendant and family historian of the Hancocks. The collection comprises portraits covering 4 generations of the Hancock family, personal and business archives, and a series of related objects, including box of copper plates and prints of diagrams and images from Walter Hancock’s ‘Narrative’. Thomas Hancock, Walter’s brother, is the centre of the story – inventor of the patent masticator and founder of the British rubber industry. The Hancock company ran until the 1930s, led by Thomas’s nephew and assistant, James Lyne Hancock, and then a great nephew John Hancock Nunn.