American Silver Porringer

Object Details

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Revere, Jr., Paul
1770

paper; hand-colored copperplate engraving on paper

Object Essay

This porringer is of the standard form (with a domed base and a keyhole handle) that prevailed in New England throughout the last two-thirds of the 18th century. Between 1762 and 1787, Revere recorded making twenty-three standard porringers and seven child’s porringers for various clients.^{1_{Deborah Federhen in Paul Revere: Artisan, 75.}} At least twelve porringers by Revere have been located, including three child’s examples.^{2_{The twelve known Revere porringers include two child’s porringers at the Worcester Art Museum (see Buhler 1979, 42, 49–50); one child’s, one covered (made for Revere himself), and three full-sized porringers at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see Buhler 1972, 2: 386, 390, 411, 414, 416); one at the Yale University Art Gallery (see Buhler and Hood, 1: 197–98); three in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see Checklist of American Silversmiths’ Work, n.p.); and at least one in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts (see Paul Revere: Artisan, 154).}} The handle of this one is nearly identical to one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, cited in Revere’s daybook as one of a pair of porringers ordered in 1769 by Thomas and Sarah (Sawyer) Parsons.^{3_{See Buhler 1972, 411.}} The engraving on the porringer in the Collection has been erased, but it is possible that it is the mate to the one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. If not, it was certainly produced at about the same time, as the small details of the handle indicate that it was cast from a mold made with the same pattern as this and several other extant Revere porringers. Revere struck his mark on the inside of his porringers just over the center point—a rather unusual placement that several of his Boston contemporaries adopted.

Revere was the eldest son of Apollos Rivoire (1702–1754) and Deborah Hitchborn (1704–1777). Rivoire was born in Riocaud, France, the second son of Isaac and Serenne (Lambert) Rivoire. Although the records are not definitive, it seems likely that the Rivoires were Huguenots. In 1715, at the age of thirteen, Apollos went to the island of Guernsey. There his uncle, Simon Rivoire, arranged for his passage to Boston. Apollos was apprenticed to Boston’s most prominent silversmith, John Coney, and by the mid-1720s he had anglicized his name to Paul. When he married in 1729, he was already known as Paul Revere. The elder Revere trained his sons Paul and Thomas to follow him in the craft. When his father died in 1754, young Paul was only nineteen, but he appears to have taken over the management of the shop. He served as Second Lieutenant in the local artillery regiment in 1756, but was soon back in the silversmithing business. In 1757, he married Sarah Orne (1736–1773), by whom he had eight children. After her death in 1773, he married Rachel Walker (1745–1813), by whom he had another eight children.^{4_{Leehy in Paul Revere: Artisan, 15–39.}}

During the next two decades, Paul Revere, Jr., achieved prominence as a silversmith and as a leader of the artisans who supported the Revolutionary cause (see Acc. No. 76.75 for his most famous broadsides). After the war, Revere returned to silversmithing, the mainstay of his business, but opened a hardware store, printed large numbers of trade cards, and engaged in other business partnerships. He established his first foundry in 1788, and, by the early 1790s, had turned the management of the silversmithing shop over to his son Paul III (1760–1813). Analysis of his daybooks shows that the nature of his shop work changed after the war. Instead of producing most items on special order, the shop now made large quantities of silver-plated harness fittings and silver flatware, in addition to the sophisticated tea wares for which Revere is known. Revere experimented with the use of sheet silver, and there is strong evidence that he used a “plating mill” to produce fused plate. In 1800, he established a copper mill at Canton, Massachusetts, for the production of much-needed sheet copper for the growing American navy. He concentrated his efforts on this extremely lucrative business until his retirement in 1811.^{5_{Federhen in Paul Revere: Artisan, 65–94. See also Skerry ibid., 41–64, and Moreno ibid., 95–116.}}

Barbara McLean Ward

Excerpted from Clement E. Conger, et al. Treasures of State: Fine and Decorative Arts in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms of the U.S. Department of State. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1991.