Paul Revere the Silversmith

Certainly, the image of Paul Revere riding on his horse, shouting "The Regulars are coming out!" is more celebrated than the image of him forging silver items in his shop. Yet, he was a highly renowned silversmith who had a silver store in Boston, Massachusetts.

Before anything else, Paul Revere was a silversmith. Learning the craft from his father at a very young age, he was even too young to run the silver store after his father passed away in 1754. It was only after his service in the French and Indian War that he took over the operations of the shop formally. According to the business ledgers, Paul Revere's silver store was a very busy place, producing more than 5,000 silver items from 1761 to 1797.  

Other than a large volume of printings, the shop produced a wide variety of silver objects including bowls, buckles, casters, creamers, cups, ladles, porringers, tankards, trays, tea sets, sugar tongs, and others. Although some people accused Revere of only serving Boston's elite class, his silver shop actually produced mostly silver spoons and buckles, as opposed to the bigger and more expensive items. In the 1760s, an enthusiastic silver buyer could buy 6 teaspoons for 9 shillings or silver knee buckles for 6 shillings 8 pence a pair.

On his silver items, Paul Revere used several recognizable silver marks. Using some of his father's silver marks when he started out, through the years, Paul Revere developed his own marks as well. On larger objects, he used his family name "REVERE" and just his initials "PR" on smaller items. In the earlier part of his career, the young Revere also marked his items with "P REVERE" but he certainly didn't use his signature or any image of a rider on a horse.

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