HESTER BATEMAN GEORGIAN SILVER TORAH POINTER.

AUCTION 65 | Thursday, June 25th, 2015 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Printed Books, Manuscripts, Ceremonial Objects and Graphic Art

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Lot 207
HESTER BATEMAN GEORGIAN SILVER TORAH POINTER.

London, 1778

Est: $5,000 - $7,000
PRICE REALIZED $5,000
English silversmith Hester Bateman (1708-94) was willed her late husband’s silver workshop upon his death in 1760. Indeed, she registered her “HB” mark at Goldsmith’s Hall in 1761 - the first of nine marks. She worked with her sons, silversmiths Jonathan Bateman and Peter Bateman who left a legacy of their own. A majority of the silver produced by the Bateman workshop was commissioned by other silversmiths and therefore “over-stamped” hence rendering Bateman-marked pieces rare. The present Torah pointer perfectly demonstrates Bateman style: The elegant shape, delicate ornamentation, brite-cut details and minute patterning (see rim on fillet around embossed fluting). Perhaps the most notable piece of Hester Bateman Judaica is a pair of magnificent George III silver Torah finials produced for the Portsmouth Synagogue, sold: Christie’s Amsterdam, Silver & Objects of Vertu, June 1st, 1999, lot 538. Another representation of Hester Bateman Judaica, a silver Sabbath hanging-lamp (1781), is housed in the Max Stern Collection, Yeshiva University Museum (accession no. 1986.168). The somewhat less well-defined “HB” mark of our Torah pointer resembles an incomplete and indistinct mark found on the Stern-Yeshiva University Sabbath Lamp.