American Silver Soup Ladle

Object Details

Object Essay

An ardent and early patriot, Paul Revere, Jr. was making copperplate engravings with political and revolutionary propaganda content by the 1760s. A member of the Sons of Liberty, the Long Room Club, and the North End Caucus, he was employed by the Massachusetts government as an official courier to the Continental Congress in the years just prior to the Revolutionary War and served as a messenger for the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence. It was in the latter capacity that he made his famous ride in 1775 to warn the citizens of Lexington and Concord of the approach of British troops. Revere became Lieutenant Colonel of the State’s Train of Artillery in 1776 and spent most of his military career stationed at Castle William in Boston Harbor. He participated in several unsuccessful expeditions against British-occupied Newport, and, in 1778, led a disastrous expedition against the British fort at Castine, Maine. Although he left the service in disgrace in 1779, he was cleared in 1782 of the charge of failing to follow orders and resumed his prominent position in Boston affairs. An influential leader among Boston’s artisans, he led the town’s tradesmen in adopting resolutions in favor of the ratification of the United States Constitution and was one of the founding members of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association.^{1_{Patrick M. Leehy in Paul Revere: Artisan, 15–39.}}

Like George Washington and a number of other prominent patriots, Revere was an enthusiastic Mason. Revere served as Grand Master of the newly created Massachusetts Grand Lodge from 1794 to 1797 and was the chief Masonic representative at the cornerstone-laying of the new State House in 1795. He knew and worked with John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, and virtually all the other leading citizens of Massachusetts. In addition to his large output of domestic silverware, Revere also produced a large number of silver items and printed certificates for Masonic lodges and other organizations.^{2_{Edith Steblecki in ibid., 117–47.}}

Throughout his career, Revere’s shop produced many ladles. Prior to the war, most were fluted and had wooden handles.^{3_{At least four fluted ladles with wooden handles bearing Revere’s mark were made as presentation pieces for Masonic lodges. One of these, made for an unidentified lodge, is in the Sterling and Francine Clarke Art Institute, Williamstown (Paul Revere: Artisan, 183). In 1762, two years after he joined St. Andrew’s Lodge, Revere made another pair as a gift from Brother Samuel Barrett to the lodge (Paul Revere’s Boston, 212). Another ladle, made for the Tyrian Lodge, Gloucester, Massachusetts, is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Buhler 1972, 2:417).}} After the war, Revere’s shop produced an increasing variety of flatware forms. Some of these were made up in advance and placed in the shop’s display cases. In 1783, among the forms Revere listed as “Ready made in the Cases” were a soup ladle and a punch ladle.^{4_{Deborah A. Federhen in Paul Revere: Artisan, 81.}} Unadorned except for the bright-cut engraving on the handle, the Collection’s example is the simplest of Revere’s ladle designs.

Barbara McLean Ward and Jennifer F. Goldsborough

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.