Fruit or Sweetmeat Basket

Hester Bateman, London, England

1788-1789

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Large, heavy, five-pronged silver serving fork, the prongs long and slender, the tapered bone handle dyed a soft blue green.
Dress sword, or rapier, with scabbard, the blade of steel and etched in a pattern of scrolling foliage, the hilt of silver, the guard and pommel elaborately engraved in a floral and strapwork pattern, the grip and pommel set with small Wedgwood blue and white jasperware medallions in ropework mounts, four on each side with on side 1) Jupiter or a young warrior; Medea rejuvenating the head of Jason’s father; classical male figure; Minerva; and on side 2) unidentified; Andromache mourning the death of Hector; Demeter searching for her daughter Persephone; Bacchanalian scene; the sewn parchment scabbard with steel tip and mouthpiece, the mouthpiece set with an oval blue and white jasperware medallion with the Muses of painting and poetry mourning the death of the Swiss poet Solomon Gessner (1720-88).
Deep dish of red earthenware (redware) with a brownish-orange lead-based glaze, the interior with a pattern of individual, incised scrolls and squiggly lines around the border, in the middle a large impressed leaf motif surrounded by four other impressed leaves; below the center leaf the date "1764" and above the initials "B C."
Oval self-shanked black basalt intaglio or cypher seal