Hester Bateman's neo-classical silver art

Bateman home and workshop
107 Bunhill Row Islington, London

Wo­men had long operated successful businesses in the early English gold­smith­ing trade. But Hester Needham (1708–94) came from a poor background with no for­mal education. At 24, she married John Bateman who worked in gold and silver, es­pecially watch chains. He died in 1760, then Hes­ter took over.

Bateman's house was in Bunhill Row Islington, the ground floor forming the workshop as was typical with Georgian bus­inesses. Bateman never re­­­married and took over John’s silver­smithing workshop, init­ially as­sist­ed by two sons, Jonathan and Peter, and an apprentice. Bunhill Row is now a Grade II Listed Building. 

  
In 1761 she regist­ered her own mark at Goldsmiths’ Hall London and over 26 years, she registered more marks. British hall­marks were a safeguard for purchasers of silver articles for hund­reds of years, and is still an important form of con­sum­er pro­tection. Examine Hester’s HB hallmark. 

check the hallmarks on Hester Bateman art objects: 

her initials, date, silver standard

By the C18th the term goldsmith was applied to an artist admit­ted to full memb­er­ship of The Goldsmiths’ Co. Yet the term was also applied to a wide range of roles related to the precious met­als industry, from refining and casting.. to being a plate worker. By the mid C18th the term goldsmith implied a retailer, while the term silver­smith referred to a manufacturer or artisan. Docu­ments relating to the Bate­man enterprise generally referred to Bateman as a gold­sm­ith.

In any case, by the later C18th the maker’s mark didn’t always signify the artist who made the object; it may have been the patron or retail­er. As the bus­­in­ess owner, Bateman was responsible to the Assay Office, the organisation ens­ur­ing that all legal require­ments had been complied with. Thus during the first period (1761-74) of the Bateman enterprise, little Bateman work was known, ? because the shop was busy with work commissioned by other silversmiths.

But from 1774 on, Bateman began purchasing pre-prepared light weight sheet silver from the Birmingham manufacturer Boulton & Foth­ergill, and focused on assem­b­ling, decorating and finishing works for sale. She took full advantage of new mechanised mass-production tech­nol­ogies eg the introduct­ion of steam-powered rolling machines to create much thinner gauge sheet sil­ver than available before. It also reflected the emergence of a new branch for silver, that of low-level mass production, which enabled Bateman and others to compete success­fully with the new Shef­field plate trade. Sheffield plate ref­erred to a technique developed in the 1740s of plating/fusing a copper alloy ingot with a thin sheet of silver to produce flatware and tablewares looking like sterling silver, but cheaper.

Note her broad range of dom­estic silver of elegant simplicity i.e wares for the table, including cutlery, salvers, cruet stands, jugs, salts cellars, mustard pots, tankards, tea and coffee services, civic and church pl­ate. The speeding up of the Indus­t­rial Rev­olution saw many families leaving the land and migrating to the cities for work, promp­ting a general inc­r­ease in education and wealth through­out soc­iety. And a rising middle class with strong social aspir­at­ions. The wide output of domestic wares by the Bateman workshop re­f­l­ected the so­c­ial change and Bateman’s servicing of a growing middle-class market

Despite tea having arrived in Europe earlier, by the late C18th it was still very exp­ensive. So the lady of the house pres­ided over the prep­ar­at­ion and serving of tea each aft­er­­noon, a desirable social ritual.

Bate­man understood that her workshop had to produce all the tea ser­v­ices elements: tea kettle on stand/samovar; teapot on a footed salver; milk jug; sugar bowl; sugar tongs; tea­spoons and lemon strain­er. The cups and saucers in tea serv­ices were preferably Chinese porcelain.

                                            

Bateman. Georgian silver cream jug, London, 1779.

pear shaped, pedestal foot, chased rural design,11.8cm high 

Antiques Atlas    

                      

Bateman. George III silver sugar basket, London, 1779.

Urn-shape, swing handle, vertical piercing alternating with bands of pierced cornflower, 

pier­c­ed cornflower footband, swing handle, crest eng­raved, cobalt blue liner.           

Afternoon tea prompted very changes for women of social standing. When her shop became successful, she specialised in tableware i.e table ut­en­sils for holding, serving and hand­l­ing food and drink. Working with grace­ful and refined shapes, her tableware includ­ed many types of cont­ain­ers, spoons and forks/flatware, knives and a range of accessories.

Bateman. Silver jug 1783

Waisted upper section with beaded rim, a domed lid with urn finial, 

mounted with fruitwood handle, applied bands of beading and circul­ar foot, 30 cm high 

Hester’s designs were increasingly influenced by late C18th Neo-class­ical taste, made famous by architect Robert Ad­am. Her designs ref­lected fashionable - oval, classical vase and helmet shapes, brig­ht punching, en­graving and pierced decoration of fol­iage, fes­t­oons, med­allions and shells. Many works were edged with fine bead­ing and surmounted with urn fin­ials. Machine piercing helped her produce large numbers of objects at fair prices and ensured rapid sales.

After retir­ing in 1790, the business was continued by her sons, Jon­a­than and Peter who’d serv­ed apprenticeships and were fully qu­al­ified silver­sm­iths. They continued a succ­ess­ful fam­ily ent­er­p­r­ise in central London, supp­lying elegant tableware to the middle classes. The sons were lat­er suc­ceeded by other family memb­ers who ran the bus­in­ess: daughter­-in-law Ann, Jonathan's wid­ow (worked 1748–1813), grand­­son William (worked 1774–1850) and great-grandson William Jnr (worked 1839-43).

Conclusion
I saw my first Hester Bateman silver at London Silver Vaults, showing all the best Hug­uenot and early C18th British silversmiths in London. I fell in love. 

Read Philippa Glanville & Jennifer Goldsborough, Women Sil­ver­smiths 1685–1845 (Thames & Hudson, London, 1990). I found at least 3 other famous female silversmiths in London in Hes­t­er’s era, but she stood out because of her 1] use of modern mech­an­ised pro­­d­uc­t­ion, 2] stunning out­put and 3] financial success! She antic­ip­at­ed soc­iety’s chan­ging expect­­at­ions and responded well. Renowned for her ornamental silver­ware and flatware, she is now seen as one of England’s most succ­essful late C18th silver­smiths.