Bradford-born David Hockney, arguably the world's greatest living artist, today received the Freedom of his home city.

And, in keeping with the idiosynchratic style for which he is famous, his gift to mark the occasion was two £5,000 silver ashtrays.

The artist told the Telegraph & Argus: "It is my town. I spent 20 years of my life here and it coloured everything. I am very, very proud,"

"Bradford has always encouraged me, after all I got a grant to go to art school, so I have always been grateful in a way."

Bradford's most famous expatriate since J B Priestley has regularly returned to the city of his birth from his home for the last 30 years in California.

Among the 20 or so specially invited guests at today's ceremony in City Hall were six members of the Hockney family including Paul Hockney and his wife Jean, Bradford's Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress in 1977; Jonathan Silver's widow Maggie Silver and her two daughters Zoe and Davina; Gregory Evans, Hockney's assistant from Los Angeles; and Celia Birtwell, the artist's favourite female model.

Freedom of the City is accompanied by a civic gift but the honour does not bestow any practical or even eccentric privileges, not even the free bus rides Hockney had enquired about, only the pleasure of recognition from his home.

In 1997 Barbara Castle, the former Labour Cabinet Minister, was given an ornate carved frame depicting scenes from her life.

Controversially, but not without a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek, Hockney has asked for a couple of large ash-trays - one for his home in Los Angeles and one for his flat in London.

"There's a world shortage," he quipped. Hockney is an unapologetic smoker who takes a droll Bradfordian delight in not being Politically Correct.

And Bradford obliged - commissioning city firm Robert Bland Ltd to create two sterling silver ashtrays at a cost of up to £5,000 each and engraved with the city's coat of arms.

Hockney joked that in California, where people are known for their fanaticism about physical health, his home in the Hollywood Hills was the "largest ash-tray in the land".

Hockney, one of a family of seven, lived in a terraced house off Leeds Road until the age of four when the family moved to Eccleshill.

After infants' school, he attended Eccleshill at Wellington First School and then, like his brother Paul, won a scholarship to Bradford Grammar School. From 1948 to 1954 he kept himself in the D stream so that he could study art.

Although a "quiet lad" at the grammar school, fellow pupil Lord Mayor councillor Stanley King, several years Hockney's senior, claimed his artistic talent had already begun to show itself.

He said: "It was clear from an early age that David was not just someone who could paint or draw, but who was a real artist.

"He would submit art to the school magazine and it really stood out; you don't notice someone a few years junior to you unless there is something special about them.

"His success is not too surprising, he always stood out from the crowd as someone with a special talent.

"He was totally unlike his older brother Paul who was in the same class as me and who was a very breezy person."

At Bradford Art College in Great Horton Road from 1953-57, he would spend up to 12 hours a day drawing, honing his great draughtsman's skills that were to take him to London's Royal College of Art.

Instead of two years' compulsory National Service, Hockney, a conscientious objector (his father was a passionate Methodist and CND supporter) volunteered to work in St Luke's Hospital, which he did from 1957-59.

In October 1959 he went to London's Royal College of Art where he remained until 1962. He won the College's Gold Medal, accepting his prize in a gold lame jacket with his dark hair dyed the same colour.

Both his work and the young artist's unusual charisma attracted attention in London's art world. The rest is history.