This cup and cover appears to be one of Hancock’s most celebrated and striking presentation pieces, as the design was commissioned multiple times, with each version subtly tailored to the client's specifications, resulting in no two pieces being identical.

SEVERAL VERSIONS, ALL UNIQUE
The prototype for the current lot seems to derive from the 1866 “Goodwood Races: The Chesterfield Cup” shown in the Illustrated London News (18 August 1866) described as: “A large silver vase made by Messrs. C. F. Hancock, Son, & Co., oval in shape, featuring Greco-Etruscan handles, and topped with a winged figure of Victory holding a palm leaf and laurel crown. Each side bears a medallion: one depicting Perseus riding Pegasus to free Andromeda, the other showing Neptune creating the horse by striking the ground with his trident. Both medallions and the statuette were designed and modelled by Signor Monti... The ornate neck, handles, and other decorations were designed by Mr. Owen Jones.” This description and illustration appears to be identical to this cup except for the absence of mermaid figures by the handles and the plinth.

At the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, Hancock presented another cup, which earned him a gold medal, described as the “Goodwood Cup, 1866”, now with the mermaids beside the handles suggesting that the present example is probably the same as the one exhibited in 1867, later hallmarked, though it lacks the original plinth (see p. 316 in The Art-Journal Catalogue of The Paris Universal Exhibition 1867 (p. 316).

Another closely related cup and cover was exhibited at the 1871 London Exhibition with a slightly different finial while the two main scenes, also by Signor Monti, depict the signing of the Magna Carta, an apt subject given the cup’s role as a testimonial to W.H. Smith, M.P. for Westminster.
Additionally, a similar model sold at Sotheby’s London as Lot 139 on May 20, 2020, titled “The Royal London Yacht Club Jubilee Cup,” originally awarded in 1887 is similar to the one sold at Christie's, London, 3 June 2014, lot 313 described as the William Henry Smith Testimonial.

THE DESIGNER
The designer and modeller of this piece was Raffaele Monti (1818–1871), a Swiss-born sculptor, author, and poet. Trained by his father Gaetano Monti, a student of Bertel Thorvaldsen who worked on Milan Cathedral and Napoleonic monuments, Raffaele moved to London in 1846. There, he sculpted the famous marble ‘Veiled Vestal Virgin’ for the Duke of Devonshire’s Chiswick House; He exhibited at the Royal Academy and gained public acclaim at the Great Exhibition of 1851, notably for ‘A Circassian Slave in the Market Place at Constantinople’. So much so that by the 1860s he was in high demands and completed an equestrian bronze of the Marquis of Londonderry now in Durham, and showcased at the London International Exhibition of 1862 ‘The Sleep of Sorrow and the Dream of Joy’; he also contributed to the design and modelling of T’he Poetry of Great Britain’, a remarkable silver display executed by C. F. Hancock and featured in The Illustrated London News, 31 May 1862, p.559.
However despite it all he was heavily in debts and focus on designing and modelling for goldsmiths like Hancock’s. His monumental silver trophies, including the Chesterfield Cup (1866), Goodwood Cup (1866), Beaufort Cup for Bath Races (1867), Marquis of Exeter’s Cup for the Royal Victoria Yacht Club (1867), Stockbridge Race Cup (1868), Doncaster Cup (1868), Brighton Cup (1869), and Royal Hunt Cup for Ascot Horse Races (1874), exemplify his extraordinary artistry.