1760-1770

Teapot

American (active Boston), 1735 - 1818

Better known as a patriot during the American Revolution, Paul Revere was the most prolific and accomplished silversmith in late 1700s Boston. His shop produced domestic and ecclesiastical objects for clients belonging to the same civic, military, political, and religious organizations as Revere. The teapot’s inverted pear shape and engraved ornament of C-scrolls, foliage, and shells epitomizes the Rococo style of his early career. Equally renowned as an engraver of bookplates, trade cards, magazine illustrations, and political prints, Revere probably executed this decoration himself. John Singleton Copley’s famous 1768 portrait of Revere (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) depicts the silversmith with engraving tools, holding a teapot with the same low, domed cover and slightly pointed, pinecone finial as this example. Could they be one and the same?