Hester Bateman

English silversmith and businesswoman

• Born: October 7, 1708 (baptized)
• Birthplace: London, England
• Died: September 16, 1794
• Place of death: St. Andrew, Holborn, England

Bateman expanded a small workshop into one of the most important silver manufacturing houses in England and produced a prodigious amount of domestic silver objects remarkable for their elegance and innovative design. The Bateman family’s works are highly prized collectibles.

Early Life

The birth of Hester Bateman, the third child of Thomas Needham and Ann Needham née Booth, was never formally registered. Ann wed Thomas, who had at least two children from previous marriages, in May 1703. She was his third wife. Hester received no formal education, and as an adult she signed legal documents with an “X.”

Around 1725, Hester Needham married John Bateman at “The Fleet,” a debtors’ prison where jailed parsons performed weddings in exchange for gin or tobacco. The couple held a formal church ceremony on May 20, 1732. John earned a living as a wire drawer and chain maker, which means he finished or made small pieces for master goldsmiths and silversmiths, who then branded the work as their own. Although he had some formal schooling, he never completed an apprenticeship, and thus could not legally work within London’s city limits. As was common practice at the time, Hester Bateman worked alongside her husband in his shop.

Hester and John Bateman had six children. Their first, John, was born in 1730, followed by Letticia and Ann by 1736. Peter arrived in 1740, William in 1745, and Jonathan in 1747. Around 1740, the Batemans lived in Cripplegate, a middle-class neighborhood popular with silver and gold workers. In 1747, they moved to Bunhill Row, a street in an upscale neighborhood just outside London, and employed at least one maid but probably more. They eventually purchased the houses directly next to their own, and subsequent generations of Bateman’s occupied these properties for more than one hundred years.

In 1760, Hester Bateman’s husband died of consumption. His will stipulated that she was to receive all of his silversmithing tools, which clearly indicated that he expected she would carry on his business.

Life’s Work

As anticipated, and like many widowed silversmiths and other tradespersons of the time, Hester Bateman took over her husband’s workshop after his death. She was fifty-one years old. She registered her first silversmith’s mark, an “HB” composed in scroll letters, in 1761 at Goldsmith’s Hall in London. She initially continued her husband’s practice of filling contracts for master silversmiths who stamped the work as their own. In 1774, however, she sharply curtailed the amount of outwork done in her shop and began creating the now sought-after pieces stamped with the “HB” mark.

Bateman specialized in useful domestic products, and her silver is most widely appreciated for its elegance and simplicity. Among the some eleven thousand pieces thought to bear the “HB” mark are spoons, forks, dinner plates, goblets, creamers, wine labels, sugar bowls, and teapots. Unlike most silversmiths of the time, however, Bateman did not limit the variety of products she made. Because she received commissions from wealthy individuals, city guilds, government offices, businesses, and churches in England and Wales, her oeuvre extends to medals, trophies, spurs, and ecclesiastical items, including a pair of verger’s wands still being used at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

The great majority of Bateman’s work nonetheless catered to the growing middle class. She utilized time-saving production methods and took full advantage of new technologies to keep prices within their financial reach. While some of her more famous contemporaries continued to create flamboyant pieces, she capitalized on the trend for classic design that began in the mid-eighteenth century, when archaeological discoveries were made at Herculaneum and Pompeii. Her work thus favored simple decorative elements such as beaded edging, piercing, and bright-cut engraving. As the name suggests, beaded edging creates a pattern that recalls a row of dots or beads. Piercing involves cutting away pieces of silver with a steel blade. Bright-cut engraving, a technique popularized in the mid-eighteenth century, is achieved with a special tool that makes faceted, light-reflecting chips in the silver. Bateman’s sons are most likely responsible for the bright-cut engraving adorning her work.

Some scholars argue Bateman lacked the training and skill to have ever made or designed a piece of silver herself. Given that “maker’s marks” are better termed “sponsor’s marks,” and that the masters designated by the stamps often had little or no physical contact with the objects, this viewpoint—true or not—does nothing to diminish Bateman’s reputation for superior marketing skills and business acumen. She ran a highly productive silversmith house.

Under her leadership, the small shop grew into a manufacturing enterprise that ranked among the top silver producers from about 1770 to 1810. Robust economic conditions enabled many women silversmiths to gain prominence in the eighteenth century, but Bateman’s large-scale success warrants special commendation given that women-owned businesses were generally not accepted as legitimate. Furthermore, silver was a risky industry. Highly skilled French Huguenot (Protestant) silversmiths seeking religious freedom in England provided stiff competition for customers, and the growing popularity of Sheffield plate (low-cost sheets of copper and silver hammered together) was driving many silversmiths out of business.

Despite the challenges, Bateman prospered. One of her sons had completed his apprenticeship and another nearly finished when she assumed control of the family business, and they ultimately worked in the shop alongside Bateman and their siblings, their sibling’s spouses, and apprentices. Bateman quite likely employed outworkers, too. For most of the period of her management, at least seven people worked exclusively on the silver items sold with the “HB” mark.

Bateman retired in 1790, after thirty-one years at the helm of the family business. Her sons, Peter and Jonathan, immediately took over the shop and acquired a joint mark in December, but Jonathan died about four months later, in 1791. Peter then teamed with Ann Bateman née Dowling, his late brother’s wife and an accomplished silversmith with blood ties to the silversmiths of the French court. Peter and Ann successfully continued the business into the first years of the nineteenth century. Ann’s son, William, gained partner status in 1815, and his son, also named William, took over operations in 1839. The last Bateman piece dates to about 1877.

Nothing is known of Hester Bateman’s life after retirement, other than that she lived in Holbrook with her daughter and died in 1794.

Significance

The large number of dealers, collectors, and museums with an interest in Hester Bateman’s silver pieces provides incontrovertible evidence of her importance in the world of antiques. In the 1970’s, her work commanded double and triple the price of similar pieces by her contemporaries—female or male—and a large number of Bateman fakes now troubles the market. Her influence extends beyond the showroom, too, as there are references to Bateman silver in novels such as Jonathan Gash’s The Ten Word Game (2004) and Jonathan Kellerman’s Billy Straight: A Novel (1998). Bateman herself is the subject of Rosalind Laker’s historical romance novel The Silver Touch (1987).

At a time when women were not encouraged to compete on equal footing with men, Bateman’s shrewd management skills grew a small family business into a thriving enterprise. The compelling story of a middle-aged widow left to support a large family, however, often overshadows her considerable achievements in business and marketing. Bateman’s entrepreneurial successes, and that of several of her notable female contemporaries, has yet to receive the level of study and recognition it deserves.

Bibliography

Ewald, Elin Lake. “Hester Bateman: Eighteenth-Century Silversmith.” Ms. 4 (March, 1976): 40-46. Provides a solid contextual background for eighteenth century women silversmiths and the silversmith trade, along with a discussion of the business and artistic decisions that ensured Bateman’s success in her lifetime and into the present day. Includes a sidebar explaining how silver objects were made.

Glanville, Philippa, and Jennifer Faulds Goldsborough. Women Silversmiths, 1685-1845: Works from the Collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Provides an excellent discussion of women’s roles in and contributions to the business of making and selling silver objects. Includes a social and artistic context for specific pieces (shown in full-color photographs) created by Bateman and more than thirty-five other prominent women silversmiths.

Robinson, Jane. Women Out of Bounds. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2002. Robinson provides a very short synopsis of Bateman’s life and work.

Scott, Deborah. “The Cult of Hester Bateman.” Antique Collector (April, 1984): 74-79. While recognizing Bateman’s importance as a business leader, the article argues that Bateman herself probably never made or designed a piece of silver.

Shure, David S. Hester Bateman, Queen of English Silversmiths. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1959. A comprehensive, if uncritical, account of Bateman, her family, and her silversmith business. Incorporates extensive research of parish records and includes a family tree. Black-and-white plates illustrate silver pieces made in Bateman’s workshop.

Wees, Beth Carver. English, Irish, and Scottish Silver at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Museum. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997. Includes numerous references to and illustrations of silver pieces by Bateman and many members of her family.