HESTER BATEMAN GEORGIAN SILVER TORAH POINTER.

London, 1778

Gracefully elongated, tapered form elegantly ornamented with etched and embossed fluted design, punctuated by horizontal rings, terminating in hand with extended pointed finger and gauntlet cuff. The whole, surmounted by orb finial and ring for chain. Hallmarks on uppermost register denoting: “England, London, Hester Bateman, 1778.” Length: 8.5 inches.

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.