Bateman, John

‘The Golden Ball’ by the Dytchside, Holborn Bridge, London; cabinet maker (fl.1708)

A walnut bureau is recorded bearing the label of John Bateman. He was the father-in-law of Hester Bateman the silversmith and perhaps the same man as ‘Mr Bateman in Pettyfrance’ who was one of three joiners commissioned in 1708 by the Trustees for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge to make bookcases for use in parishes distant from London. Bateman’s share of the job was ‘14 Double Cases of the best Season’d Oak conformable to the Pattern he has sent in, but so as to afford them at 25s each’. At least two bookcases are known to survive, one is illustrated in Regional Furniture (2007), pp. 266-7.

Source: DEFM; Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (1996), p. 16; Riley, ‘The Case for a Parochial Library’, Regional Furniture (2007).