Handcock was one of two appraisers of Thomas Betts. Handcock was apprenticed to Betts in 1752 setting up his own workshop some ten years later. Handcock & Co supplying fitting to Windsor Castle Stoneleigh Abbey and Eaton Hall the firm later becoming Handcock, Shepherd & Rixon at 1 Cockspur Street, exhibiting at the Great Exhibition of 1851 shortly after take a commission to manufacture the worlds largest chandelier for the Dolmabahce Palace Istanbul this legendary chandelier of some 4.5-tons and original for 464 candle lights designed by Frederick Rixon in London in 1853. The chandelier bears a plague writing This Chandelier was planned and executed by Frederick Rixon of the firm Handcock Rixon & Dunt No 1 Cockspur Street London June 1853 the firm also supplying a crystal baluster staircase for the Sultan Abdulmecid, the Palace built between 1842 and 1853 at a cost of five million Ottoman gold pounds.
The company last mentioned at 47 Marlborough Street ( The furniture Gazette Directory 7 July 1877.
