AN IMPORTANT SILVER BEAKER

MARK OF PAUL REVERE, BOSTON, 1753

Details

AN IMPORTANT SILVER BEAKER
Mark of Paul Revere, Boston, 1753
Bell-form on a molded circular foot, the side engraved with a presentation inscription within a strapwork, scroll and bellflower cartouche, marked under base
5½in. high, 2¾in. diameter of foot; 9oz. 10dwt.

Literature

Patricia Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, 1998, p. 806-07.
E. Alfred Jones, Old Silver of American Churches, 1913, p. 78, illus. pl. XXX.

Exhibited

"American Church Silver of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1911, cat. no. 871-72, p. 105, illus. pl. 31.

Engraved

This Cup is Generously Dedicated by the Contributors for the sole use & benefit of the Presbyterian Church and Congregation in Bury Street of which the Revd. Mr. Moorhead is Minister N=England 8br ye 1753

Lot Essay

This beaker and the two following lots represent the patriot craftsman's earliest recorded work. Revere was born December 21, 1734 and began training as a silversmith with his father around 1748. Upon his father's death in 1754, Revere was still a minor, but was permitted to carry on the trade on behalf of his mother.

Silver produced by Revere in the 1750s is exceedingly rare. According to an inventory of extant work in Patricia Kane's Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, only six other pieces are known. These include a porringer, two casters, two cream pots and a sugar bowl.

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