ON VIEW

The patriot Paul Revere is by far the best known of all American silversmiths. Because of his legendary status, which was firmly established during the nineteenth century with the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's popular poem "Paul Revere's Ride," more silver objects made by Revere have been preserved than by any other colonial silversmith. Two daybooks, saved by Revere's descendents, in which Revere recorded the daily activities of a diverse metalsmithing business, reveal an entrepreneurial approach to business. In addition to his work in silver and gold, including engraving, Revere performed dentist's duties and ran a foundry and copper-rolling mill.

Canns were used in both domestic and ecclesiastical settings during the eighteenth century as drinking vessels. Several Revere canns are known today. Of particular interest is a quart cann, virtually identical to the cann shown, and now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which was part of a pair of canns made for Thomas Lee of Boston in 1787. An entry in one of Revere's daybooks reveals that Lee paid over twelve pounds for materials (silver was typically seven shillings per ounce), an additional four pounds, sixteen shillings for Revere's labor, and sixteen shillings for engraving. An engraved quart cann therefore cost about eighteen pounds, the equivalent of four months of the average journeyman's wages. The Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby also owned a pair of Revere canns, purchased in 1783, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The design and decoration of this cann are typical of American Rococo silver. The foliate-leaf chasing on the cast, double-scrolled handle, bulbous pear-shaped body, and contoured splayed foot are features that had been incorporated into the design of canns by 1750 and changed little until the form became obsolete around 1800. Like tankards and porringers, after 1750 canns were considered to be traditional forms; hence their popularity was scarcely affected by the latest styles. A cann was a secure investment, likely to retain its value over time, an important consideration before the advent of banking.

WNH and KB


REFERENCES

Kathryn C. Buhler. American Silver, 1655-1825, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 3 vols. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1972. Vol. 3, pp. 384-85, 407, 429.

Kathryn C. Buhler. American Silver from the Colonial Period through the Early Republic in the Worcester Art Museum. Worcester, MA: Worcester Art Museum, 1979. P. 27.

William N. Hosley and Gerald W. R. Ward eds. The Great River: Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley, 1635-1820. Ex. cat. Wadsworth Atheneum, 1985. Pp. 305-06.

Conversation with David Barquist, Yale University Art Gallery, July 1994.