Category: Uncategorized

Hester Bateman (1708-1794)

The mark of Hester Bateman registered in 1761 (1708–1794). Mrs. Bateman, a silversmith of household silverware in London, used her special initials along with the standard hallmarks; the crown signifying a tax is paid to the crown, a lion which identifies the type of metal (sterling silver) and the h, a “date letter” which notes the year of production.

By Louisa Cornell

Born Hester Needham in 1708 (perhaps 1709) in London

She married John Bateman (sometime between 1730-1732) He worked in silver and gold and his primary business was thought to be watch chains. Hester learned everything about the silversmith business from him that she could, but also studied the work of others.

Bateman left his business in its entirety to his wife when he died in 1760.

By 1761 she had registered her mark at Goldsmiths Hall in London.

By 1774 hers was one of the most successful shops in London.

Unlike other silversmiths she didn’t specialize in one area. Her shop made a wide variety of tableware as well as inkwells, trophies, and religious items.

Her simple but elegant designs were popular among the new rising middle class. Her integration of the newest technology into production enabled her to charge lower prices for quality work.

Her work was characterized by bright-cut engraving, beading around the edges, and piercing.

She retired in 1790 and turned her business over to her sons as her daughter, Letitia Clarke, had opened her own business as a jeweler and goldsmith.

Hester died in 1794. Her sons continued the business and it was passed down as a successful concern to her male and female descendants until it closed in 1843.

Hester Bateman is considered one of England’s finest silversmiths, male or female. Pieces with her mark are highly prized (not to mention highly priced) today.

Her business acumen and willingness to experiment with new technology took a small silver shop and turned it into a thriving and profitable concern able to support her family and a number of employees as well.

Not bad for a woman who learned her craft in spite of no formal education whilst married to a man ill with tuberculosis and raising six children.

Louisa Cornell

These days anyone in any sort of business knows the advantage and efficiency an attractive and well-worded business card can provide. These small embossed pieces of card stock are a relatively inexpensive and quick way to get the word out about the services one offers. Tucked away in a potential customer’s wallet or kitchen drawer they offer a chance of repeat customers or of custom from someone who discovers themselves in need of a particular service.

Brilliant idea, right? But where did the idea come from? We will likely never know precisely, but here are some things about early business cards in England, or rather trade cards, as they were more frequently called, that we do know. Their history is quite fascinating and presents a microcosm of the development of business and trade in the British Isles.

Trade cards first came into current use after 1700. There are a few examples from as early as 1630, but their consistent use is not documented until after 1700. They were originally sheets of paper ranging up to folio size. They were called by a variety of names – tradesmen’s cards, tradesmen’s bills or shopkeepers’ bills. By the nineteenth century, with the advent of so many printing techniques they ranged from calling card size to highly colored handbills known as counter cards.

The cards of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries featured some aesthetic qualities to rival and even surpass those of today. They reflect the skills of artisans through two centuries. The lettering is well-drawn and spaced with machine-like precision. The designs and devices that appear on the cards are direct and eye-catching. These early cards belonged primarily to those in professions or those of the merchant class. Their designs were created to appeal to the educated classes.

Many of the early trading cards show the influence of Thomas Chippendale, especially his work in the popular Chinese style. This was especially true once the public menace of ornate hanging signs to denote a business location was replaced with the street numbering of addresses around the year 1762. The focus of the cards also changed. The script of the cards came to include the type of goods advertised and directions to the establishment.

Richard Severn, Jeweller and Toyman

The corner of Paul’s Grove-Head-Court

near Temple Barr, London

John Suffield was an engraver and desiger of lettering, although he was also known through his signed metal work and made a medal commemorating the election of Sir Charles Cockerell to Evesham in 1819. Suffield is also listed in the 1817 Johnstone’s London Commercial Giude, and Street Directory.

Trade Card for R. Ackermann, Printseller and Art Dealer

For those who want to learn more on this intriguing subject I suggest the book:

London Tradesmen’s Cards of the Eighteenth Century by Ambrose Heal.

If you are interested in the role trade cards have played in discovering the role of women in business in 18th and 19th century England, stay tuned. I will be adding a post dedicated to that subject quite soon!

From The Book of Fashionable Life by A Member of the Royal Household (London, n.d.)

Louisa Cornell

Henry Alken was an English painter and engraver best known for his caricatures and sporting and coaching scene illustrations.Whilst his work is not as well-known as that of others who specialized in similar artistic endeavors, his talent was every bit as great and his influence on the British art of the sporting world cannot be measured.

He was born on October 12, 1785 in the Soho neighborhood of Westminster London. His father was Samuel Alken who was a sporting artist. His brother, Samuel Alken the Younger, also became an artist. The father’s success as an artist enabled the family to move to Bedford Square when Henry was around four years of age.

Henry first studied art with his father. He showed such promise, he was soon under the tutelage of the miniaturist, Thomas Barber Beaumont (1774-1841,) who was also known as T.J. Barber. In 1801, at the age of sixteen Henry submitted a miniature portrait of Miss Gubbins to the Royal Academy Exhibition. He would exhibit a second miniature at the Academy before moving on from miniature painting to regular painting and illustrating. Early in this part of his career he painted sporting subjects under the name of “Ben Tally-O.” It is believed he used this name until 1816.

From 1816 forward Henry Alken produced an innumerable number of paintings, drawings, and engravings of every variety of field and sporting activity. His soft-ground etchings were often colored by hand. His success was such that he moved his wife and children over a shop in Haymarket which was owned by a print publisher, Thomas McLean. McLean published the Repository of Wit and Humor in which many of Alken’s satirical prints first appeared. He paid Alken a salary of thirty shillings a day, considered an excellent income at this time.

Alken worked in oils and watercolors. He was a skilled etcher as many of his prints show.

In 1816 he issued the first major collection of his work under his own name. The beauties & defects in the figure of the horse / comparatively delineated was published by S. & J. Fuller, at the Temple of Fancy, 34, Rathbone Place, London. It contains a series of hand- colored soft-ground etchings which are essentially studies in equine anatomy. One can view this work at the link below.

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/orbis:12524527

From 1816 until 1831 he created many sets of etchings of sporting scenes and subjects. They were colored for the most part and some were quite humorous in nature. These sets included:

 Humorous Specimens of Riding – published in 1821

Symptoms of Being Amazed – published in 1822

Symptoms of Being Amused – published in 1822

Flowers from Nature – published in 1823

A Touch at the Fine Arts – published in 1824

Ideas – published in 1830

He also published a number of books. These included:

Illustrations for Landscape Scenery – published in 1823

Scraps from the Sketch Book of Henry Alken – published in 1823

New Sketch Book – published in 1824

Sporting  Scrap Book  – published in 1827

Shakespeare’s Seven Ages – published in 1827

Sporting Sketches – published in 1831

Illustrations to Popular Songs – published in 1831

Illustrations of Don Quixote – published in 1831

Alken’s work was appreciated in his day to such a degree he provided the plates that pictured hunting, coaching, racing, and steeplechasing for The National Sports of Great Britain published in 1821. In fact, he is best remembered for his hunting prints, both serious and satirical, many of which he engraved himself until the 1830’s. He created prints for Ackermann. In 1842 Ackermann published Life of a Sportsman by Charles James Apperley (1779-1843) who was also known as Nimrod. The book included 32 etchings by Henry Alken.

Alken died in April 1851. He left behind a widow, Maria Gordon Alken, and five adult children. Two of his sons followed in their father’s footsteps and had careers as artists – Henry Thomas Alken and Seffererien Alken.

IN PART TWO – We will explore Alken’s work in a difference areas in a bit more detail.