Bottle tickets identified the contents of a bottle or decanter, which might alternatively contain spirits, sauces, toilet waters or cordials. This silver ticket identifies the contents as Madeira, a fortified wine named after the island where it was made.

Contemporary gazettes begin to refer to ‘labels for bottles’ in the 1770s but it was not until the 1790s that they were established as wine or decanter labels. These tickets also illustrate in miniature the skills of the silversmith over the last two hundred years.

Hester Bateman, who made this example, was a successful woman silversmith. She learned her trade from her husband and set up in her own right on his death in 1760. She probably managed the workshop rather than made the silver herself. The firm produced cheaper, thin gauge domestic tablewares using a limited range of ornament for largely middle-class customers. Members of her family, such as her daughter-in-law Ann and her son Peter, joined the business and continued it after her retirement in 1790. Insurance documents for 1802 show that the firm, with its own steam-operated flatting mill, was one of the most technologically advanced in London. Bateman silver was exported to retailers and customers all over England and North America.