Postby dognose » Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:27 am
H.C. FREEMAN Ltd.
84, later, 31, Hatton Garden, London and 22, Hylton Street, Birmingham
Six gold cigarette cases valued at $100 each were obtained from H. Freeman & Co., Hatton Garden gem and jewelry dealers, by a trick this week, the nature of the coup leading the firm to think that a certain pre-war jewel gang is operating again. A bogus telephone message, purported to be from a Regent St. jewelry firm, was followed by a messenger boy to whom the cases were handed. It was later found that the printed order form handed in by the boy was a forgery and that the package of cigarette cases changed hands outside the shop. In 1914, Messrs. Freeman said it was usual to get an errand boy to go to the jewelry house and collect the package after the arrangement for jewelry on approval had been settled by telephone, the boy being an innocent party to the transaction, and being paid sixpence or a shilling to collect the package and hand it over to a member of the gang outside on the street.
Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 1st October 1924
Established in 1870 by Henry Charles Freeman.
Henry Charles Freeman died, aged 66 years, on the 31st May 1914.
Converted into a limited liability company in 1914, the directors recorded as Lucy Mary Freeman, Henry Ivan Freeman, and George Augustus Richards.
The business entered their marks, 'H.C.F' and 'HCF/Ld', contained within a heraldic shield, with the London Assay Office.
Trev.