Benthall Hall, Benthall, Shropshire, is a 16th-century stone country house with surrounding gardens, now in the care of the National Trust (photo: March 2019).
Caroline O. Bateman (1839–1922). A life-size portrait of her aged 47, painted by her husband, Robert Bateman, three years after they were married. The book she holds is signed by Robert “RB 1886”.
Image © Nigel Daly, used with permission.
For the story of Caroline and Robert, see The Lost Pre-Raphaelite: The Secret Life and Loves of Robert Bateman by Nigel Daly, (Bitter Lemon Press, 2014).
- The images seen here are of two double-handled loving cups, both decorated by Caroline O. Bateman and dated 1897.
- The cups are the same size and shape as the slip-painted 1897 Diamond Jubilee loving cups and are clearly from the same moulds.
- Caroline Octavia Bateman née Howard (1839–1922) was born at Donnington Rectory, Telford, Shropshire, approximately 13 miles north of Benthall. She was the daughter of Henry Howard (1795–1868), Dean of Lichfield Cathedral, and niece of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle. Caroline's father received the living of Donnington Rectory in 1834.
- Caroline married Rev Charles Wilbraham (1810–79), vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Penkridge, south Staffordshire, in 1876. She was 37, he was 66. Caroline was widowed in 1879.
- Four years later, in 1883, Caroline married Robert Bateman(1842–1922), her long-time suitor.
- Robert Bateman was an artist, illustrator, architect and garden designer. He was the third son of James Bateman, the owner of Biddulph Grange, north Staffordshire, who created the spectacular gardens there.
- Caroline and Robert Bateman became tenants of Benthall Hall in about 1890, where they lived until 1905 (the Wellington Journal, in issues published in August and September 1905, refers to the Batemans leaving the area; a December 1905 reference indicates they had departed by then; there are no references to them at Benthall Hall after 1905).
- The Benthall Pottery was at the junction with The Avenue – the approach road leading to Benthall Hall. The loving cups seen here are the only known direct evidence of a link between the tenants of Benthall Hall and the Benthall Pottery.
- The inference is that Caroline knew of the pottery’s 1897 Diamond Jubilee loving cups, and obtained two for her personal use. Given the amount of sgraffito decoration, many hours of careful work would have been involved in June and July 1897 which, combined with the personal nature of each cup, would most likely have seen Caroline working on the cups in the comfort and privacy of Benthall Hall, rather than in the workshop of the pottery. The cups would have been returned to the pottery for firing.
- The cups are clearly private pieces, intended for Caroline and Robert. It seems fair to assume they were kept at Benthall Hall until 1905, when the Batemans gave up the tenancy of the Hall. From Benthall they moved to Nunney, near Frome, Somerset, where they lived until their deaths a few days apart in 1922.
- The cups remained in the possession of descendants of the Howard family, in Somerset, until sold at auction in 2018.
