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 Hester Bateman
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| Author | Topic: Hester Bateman |
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obnock Posts: 27 |
posted 06-15-2005 02:00 PM
  
Am I the only person that is constantly suprised by the prices paid for Hester Bateman items. My opinion is that whilst she was a wonderful at marketing her wares the item were of very average quality and are of no great significance, but people still pay prices comparable to great silversmiths like Paul Storr or Paul Crespin. I think it is the recognition factor like Clarice Cliff "everyones heard of them so they must be good", well sorry I think its overated, mass produced poor quality ware. What do you all think? IP: Logged |
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salmoned Posts: 336 |
posted 06-15-2005 05:22 PM
I think herd mentality is great, it allows the mavericks to cherry-pick the 'undiscovered' fields. IP: Logged |
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asheland Posts: 935 |
posted 06-15-2005 11:39 PM
I could not agree more. I find that makers like Richard Crossley & George Smith produced much better quality items or at least their journey-men did. asheland IP: Logged |
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Dale Posts: 2132 |
posted 06-16-2005 12:32 AM
My own surmise is that Hester Bateman commands money because she was a woman. It would seem logical to compare her to her contemporary female smiths. Of whom there are very few. So, while it makes little sense to value this as silver work; it does make some sense to value it as early feminism. Or at least that is how I read the tea leaves. I also suspect she was one of the first people to run an actual silver factory as oppossed to smithery. IP: Logged |
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adelapt Posts: 418 |
posted 06-16-2005 02:56 AM
It seems to have helped her cause no end that David Shure wrote his very eulogistic book. Also that the wares were reasonably plentiful and were adopted by some presumably influential marketers (and collectors). It does seem (to an outsider) that her reputation rides higher in the U.S. than in her own country. George Savage's book "Totter's Teapot" capitalised on the latter point. IP: Logged |
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Ulysses Dietz Moderator Posts: 1265 |
posted 06-16-2005 11:43 AM
A major figure in the American auction world always used to refer to Mrs. Bateman as "Hester the Batwoman." Her attraction is most likely much stronger in America, where the middle-class quality of her work is hard to distinguish from the quality of contemporary Federal work. Upper-middle-class women in the 1920s-60s collected Hester Bateman, through places like Ensko in NYC, undoubtedly because it was by a woman(feminism wasn't in the picture with these ladies, I'm pretty sure); it was more available than American Federal silver; as well as for its comfortable, pretty design. I'd love to know if and how much of her stuff was marketed to America in her own lifetime. Do any records survive? The Newark Museum has thirty pieces of Hester Bateman silver, most of which came to us from a well-to-do Newark grande dame who bought it in the 1920s-40s. IP: Logged |
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