Religious silver is usually made to established models and
in a conservative taste.
The finials offered here are a rare
exception, representing the very latest neoclassical trends in
the London of Robert Adam.
Additionally, in a century where
most guilds did not admit Jewish members, they were taken to
Goldsmiths’ Hall and presented for assay by a partnership w ith
a Jewish member, Jacob Levi.
These gentlemen in turn almo st
certainly acquired them from the manufacturing workshop
of Hester Bateman, a rare female entrepreneur in the male-
dominated world of 18th century silversmithing.
The presence of the mark of Evans & Levi on the 1784 pair
of Torah finials is a rare snapshot of a Jewish presence in
the world of London working silversmiths.
Thomas Evans
and Jacob Levi’s short-lived business lasted for about seven
months during that year, from the time they entered their joint
mark at Goldsmiths’ Hall on 20 February to the dissolution
of their partnership on 24 August, after which Evans ‘carried
on the Trade as usual on his own Account.’
Evans & Levi’s
business was in Featherstone Street, a turning off Bunhill Row
and a few minutes’ walk from Mrs.
3
Bateman’s factory.
Little is
known of Evans and much less of Levi; but their mark has only
ever been recorded on spoons except for its appearance on
these Torah finials.
Thomas Evans’s many changes of address
between 1774 and 1792 suggest that he might have been a
journeyman rather than a proprietor.
After Evans and Levi
went their separate ways, Levi entered a mark on his own as
a bucklemaker on 19 October 1784, when his address was 26
Mansell Street, Goodman’s Fields.5
Their quality recognized, these finials were later owned by
the two most important early collectors of Judaica in Englan d
– Philip Joseph Salomons and Reuben David Sassoon – and
shown in the landmark 1887 Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibiti on
at the Royal Albert Hall.
(Fig.
1)
THREE PAIRS OF ENGLISH SILVER TORAH FINIALS
This pair of English silver Torah finials is one of a trio, all of wh ich
were hallmarked in London in the 1780s. THE PORTSMOUTH JEWISH COMMUNITY
It is thought, because
of the similarity of their design and workmanship, that they we re
all made in the same workshop, notwithstanding the fact that
all three are struck with different so-called maker’s marks.
Th e
first, dating from 1780, bears the mark of Hester Bateman (17 08-
1794); the second, 1783, that of Pratt & Humphreys; and the
third and present pair, 1784, that of Evans & Levi.
The pair of Bateman Torah finials was supplied in 1780 to the
congregation of the synagogue at Portsmouth in Hampshire,
which was the largest and oldest English Jewish Community
outside London.
6
The Portsmouth and Southsea congregation
was probably established in the early 1740s and in 1780
their synagogue was built in White’s Row (now Curzon Howe
Road).
In 1766 the Jewish community at Portsmouth was split
between the original congregation and a new, smaller one
which, after 23 years of sometimes bitter separation, rejoined
the main flock in 1789.
It was for this new congregation that
the Pratt & Humphreys finials were supplied in 1783.7
The most likely location of manufacture of all three pairs
of finials was in the establishment of Hester Bateman at
Bunhill Row, about a mile north east of St.
Paul’s Cathedral
and Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City of London.
Mrs. Bateman’s
husband, John, a gold chain maker, died in 1760, leaving the
business in her hands
Assisted by two of her sons, Peter
(1740-1825) and Jonathan (1747-1791), Bateman’s factory
expanded its production from silver smallwork (wine labels,
&c.)
to larger pieces, particularly after the installation of hor se-
driven machinery in the late 1770s and, later still, a steam
engine.
By the 1780s/90s, Bateman’s, silver flatters as well as
working silversmiths, is thought to have been the largest suc h
concern in London, supplying the working trade with sheet
silver and the retail trade with all manner of domestic, displa y
and presentation plate.
It is possible that the Evans & Levi pair of finials were also
made for the Portsmouth congregation and that all three pairs
were conceived as an ensemble.
It was not uncommon for
some members of a congregation to own their own Torahs,
which were stored in the ark of their synagogue and used on
specific feasts or days important to the owner.
If this were
the case it might explain why the Evans & Levi pair left the
Portsmouth synagogue and were acquired by Philip Joseph
Salomons (1796-1867).
One of those retailers must have been Pratt & Humphreys
of 44 Poultry, a few steps away from the Bank of England,
the Royal Exchange and Mansion House.
The partners were
Thomas Boulton Pratt (d.
1796) and Arthur Humphreys
who entered a joint mark in London on 7 July 1780.
Their
partnership lapsed with Humphreys’s death in May 1785.2
That there was a link between Jacob Levi of Evans & Levi
and the Jewish community at Portsmouth is a distinct and
intriguing possibility.
It may be no more than a coincidence
that there were two Jacob Levis: one in London, in part
responsible for the 1784 Torah finials, and another Jacob
Levi in Portsmouth, a member of a prominent local Jewish
family.
The latter was headed by Benjamin Levi (d.
1787),
an engraver whose trade card shows that he specialized in
‘engraving in Seals, Stamps, Plate, Copper Plate and Pewter.
at the corner of Union Row, in Queen Street, on Portsmouth
Common.’
His three sons were Jacob (1746-1816), Isaac (d.
1785) and Elias, all of whom were also engravers.
92