Paul Revere silver at the Worcester Art Museum

Magazine Antiques, April, 2000 by David R. Brigham

Ever since its founder and principal benefactor, Stephen Salisbury III (1835-1905), bequeathed four pieces of his family silver made by Paul Revere to the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, Revere's work has been an important Leature of the museum's early American collection. A series of gifts between 1937 and 1967 added thirty of the forty-five pieces that originally comprised Revere's largest single commission--the service made for Dr. William Paine, a Worcester physician, in 1773. Then, in 1999, the museum doubled its holdings of Revere silver through a generous donation from the Paul Revere Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Unum-Provident Corporation. [1]

The museum's collection now spans Revere's entire career, from the simple curves of the Queen Anne style to the florid naturalism of the rococo and the geometric order of the neoclassical. Many of the objects are well documented and offer further knowledge about Revere's patrons, who included loyalists and patriots; merchants in Boston and other ports; rural gentry, political leaders, lawyers, physicians, and a handful of prosperous fellow craftsmen. He also made silver for churches, Masonic lodges, and mechanics' associations.

The elegant cream pot in Plate I, the earliest work by Revere in the collection, demonstrates a knowledge of the Queen Anne style that he absorbed in the workshop of his father and teacher, Paul Revere Sr. Although at first glance it is quite similar to the cream pot by the elder Revere shown in Plate II, the two pots differ, most notably in the relationship between the body and the handle. The lip and handle are loosely parallel in contour on the elder Revere's pot, while his son balanced these elements asymmetrically by fashioning a tighter and higher handle than his father's. The younger Revere continued to use the bulbous body for cream pots, canns, and coffee- and teapots into the 1790s, his work overlapping the rococo and neoclassical styles. [2]

By 1760 Revere had begun to in corporate aspects of the rococo vocabulary, especially in the fluid naturalistic engraving for which he would become widely sought after. The early salver shown in Plate III is one of the recent additions to the collection. The use of leaves and shells is consistent with the rococo style, but their orderly placement at regular intervals maintains a restraint characteristic of the Queen Anne style. This salver is one of three known examples Revere made in this transitional style. [3]

Judging by the inscription on the bottom, the museum's salver was probably given by William White to his first cousin William Phillips on the occasion of Phillips's marriage in 1760 to Margaret Wendell. [4] At the time of his marriage Phillips was twenty-three and a merchant, like his father, John Phillips (1701-1768). The latter, the son of the Salem goldsmith Samuel Phillips (1657/58-1722), was also a stationer, deacon of the Brattle Street Church in Boston, a justice of the peace and of the quorum, a colonel of the Boston Regiment, and Boston's representative to the Massachusetts General Court. [5] Despite an untimely death, William Phillips amassed impressive holdings, which at his death were valued at [pounds]1081 7s 10 3/4d, including a household appraised at [pounds]242 6s 9 3/4d. [6]

The sale of ornate salvers to William White and other patrons in 1760 and 1761 apparently encouraged Revere's exploration of the rococo style. It was about that time that he began chasing the surfaces of his hollowware. The cream pot in Plate IV is an interesting adaptation of the bulbous form he learned to make in his father's shop, which he embellished with copious chasing, the vertical ridges conforming to the shape of the body. [7] The demand for such wares and Revere's skill at creating them are attested by the fact that his customers for them included his fellow silversmiths Samuel Minott (1732-1803), John Coburn (1724-1803), Nathaniel Hurd (1729/30-1777) and John Symmes (1740-1792). [8] In addition to cream pots and sugar howls, Revere's day-books indicate that he also made chased salvers, and he continued to develop his use of rococo engraving and cast elements with designs adapted from nature. [9]

Among the masterworks of Revere's rococo period is the suite of silver (see Pl. VI) he created in 1773 for Dr. William Paine (Pl. V), who was preparing to marry Lois Orne of Salem. Paine paid seventy-four pounds for the silver, thirty-four pounds for making and engraving the set, and three shillings and four pence for a wooden box to contain this glorious wedding present. [10] Lois Orne was the daughter of the merchant Timothy Orne (1717-1767), who owned a substantial interest in more than fifty vessels that sailed to the West Indies and Europe, carrying fish, cloth, wine, rum, brandy, grain, molasses, and slaves. When Orne died he left each of his four surviving daughters considerable wealth: one quarter of his Georgian mansion, one eighth of the adjoining land, one eighth of the barn and other outbuildings, two common rights in Salem, and [pounds]1,500 in cash. [11]