AN IMPORTANT SILVER PRESENTATION PUNCH URN

细节

AN IMPORTANT SILVER PRESENTATION PUNCH URN
MAKER'S MARK OF PAUL REVERE, BOSTON, 1796

Urn form, on flaring cirular foot, the body with two raised loop handles with leaf-clad joins, the domed cover with a ball finial, one side engraved with the elevation of the Boston Theatre, the other with inscription, both sides engraved with further inscriptions of provenance, marked REVERE, Buhler mark e, near rim
11 5/8in. high
(31oz.)

The cup is originally inscribed:
THE PROPRIETORS
of the BOSTON THEATRE
TO
Samuel Brown, Esqr.
one of their TRUSTEES
1796
The subsequent inscriptions are: Samuel Brown, Esqr. TO Rev Alfred L. Baury. 1825. Rev Alfred L. Baury.D.D. To his Son Frederick F. Baury. 1865. Caroline Baury Bradford 1888 to her daughter Pauline Baury Bradford 1912 to her nephew Baury Bradford Richardson 1941.

来源

Samuel Brown, merchant, of Boston; thence by descent
Sotheby's, New York, June 28, 1984, lot 71.
Arthur and Rosalinde Gilbert Collection

Samuel Brown was a China trade merchant, and in 1790 he and Charles Bulfinch invested in the same shipping venture

出版

David B. Warren, et al., Marks of Achievement: Four Centuries of American Presentation Silver, 1987, cat. no. 110, p. 98.
Timothy B. Schroder, The Gilbert Collection of Gold and Silver, 1988, fig. 172, pp. 637-639.

展览

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1943
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1987, "Marks of Achievement: Four Centuries of American Presentation Silver," cat. no. 68
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984-1995

拍品专文

The present urn is one of four commissioned by the Boston Public Theatre for presentation to its Trustees in 1796. The only other extant urn from this group, now lacking its cover, is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated in Kathryn C. Buhler, American Silver in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1972, fig. 406, pp. 457-458.

The city of Boston finally repealed its long standing law against the public staging of plays, and founded the first Boston Theatre in 1794. The first theatre company, however, was bankrupt by 1795, and the present cup represents the successful establishment of the second Boston Theatre in 1796. The building, completed that year, was designed by Charles Bulfinch and is typical of his neoclassical style. An engraved depiction of a building on a piece of American silver is extremely rare. (See Warren et al., op. cit., p. 98.)

photo caption for B&W detail: Revere's original receipt for the four punch urns commissioned for the trustees of the Boston Theatre. Paul Revere signed it on July 12, 1798 when full payment was received from Elisha Sigourney, the Boston Theatre's treasurer. Courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library