March, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



97 



Flagons and ewers from old Colonial churches in and around Boston, 

 for the church in Brattle Street, 1711. The flagon to the right was 



North Church, 



England churches include the beautifully fashioned "beak- 

 ers" with or without covers, more or less elaborately deco- 

 rated. In localities where the influence of the established 

 church was strong, the communion service was apt to include 

 chalices with the enlarged "bowl" made necessary by the 

 administering of the wine to the people. The various Brit- 

 ish sovereigns gave liberally to the parishes of the Estab- 

 lished Church in far-away America, and many Episcopal 

 churches in New England, New York and the States farther 

 south, possess communion services given by Queen Anne, 

 William and Mary, or the Georges. King's Chapel in Bos- 

 ton, by reason of its dignity and importance, received many 

 tokens of royal bounty and favor, and its collection was 

 greatly augmented by the gifts of Colonial silver made by 

 fervent parishioners in Boston. The extent of its posses- 

 sions may be imagined, for when the Tory rector of the 

 parish left Boston after the evacuation by the British, he 

 took with him 2,800 ounces of silver which belonged to the 

 chapel. Some few of these treasures have since been 

 restored to this quaint old church, which adds greatly to a 

 pilgrimage thither. 



American plate, to be sure, never attained to the luxury 

 which characterized its manufacture in England. Beside the 

 splendid and elaborate tea and dinner services made by Eng- 

 lish makers, the work of our early American silversmiths 

 appears modest and simple indeed, but its very simplicity 

 carried with it a certain severe and classic beauty which 

 could not be surpassed. It must be remembered that the 

 colonists had not attained to the wealth which would war- 

 rant the expense of such lavish display, nor did the social 

 usage and customs of the times afford an opportunity for the 

 use of the sumptuous plate made in England for the use of 

 royalty and the nobility. Moreover, silver itself was at a 

 premium, and its value was held to be greater in the form 

 of currency than in articles for personal adornment or for 

 household use. 



Boston has ever been the center of American taste and 

 culture and appreciation of the arts, and although workers 

 in silver, lived and worked in all of the more prosperous 

 colonies, the Boston craftsmen possessed, it would seem, a 

 higher degree of artistic perception and technical skill than 

 the workers in other Colonial cities. The highly important 



The center ones were made by Nathaniel Morse and by John Noyes 

 made by I. Bridge, the gift of Mrs. Mary Hunnewell to the New 

 Boston, 1751 



commerce of New England kept them closely in touch with 

 the prevailing fashions of Europe, and the manufacturing 

 activity of the New England towns doubtless stimulated 

 them to the production of wares for which the increasing 

 prosperity created a ready demand. Wealthy colonists in 

 New York, Maryland and Virginia loved to surround them- 

 selves with furnishings of beauty and refined luxury, but 

 they were almost always imported from Holland or Eng- 

 land — they were seldom fashioned by home workmen, as 

 was apt to be true of the same objects of domestic adorn- 

 ment or utility in use in the homes of New England. Per- 

 haps, too, the pre-eminence of the Boston silversmiths seems 

 to have been more evident than that of craftsmen elsewhere, 

 because more of their work has survived the vicissitudes 

 of time. 



These workers in silver may be regarded as the aristoc- 

 racy of craftsmanship, for many became wealthy in the 

 trade and belonged to families whose names have figured 

 largely in the history of the places where they lived and 

 worked. It is scarcely possible to find even the names of 

 many of the early makers of furniture and the names of 

 potters mean but little to others than collectors of the wares 

 which they produced. Silversmiths, upon the other hand, 

 seem to have occupied more eminent places in the commun- 

 ity and upon the list of early silvermakers in New York are 

 such names as Brevoort, Kip, Roosevelt and De Peyster, 

 while in Boston silversmiths occupied high seats in Colonial 

 councils and bore such names as Hancock, Quiftcy and Re- 

 vere. 



One is apt to think of Paul Revere chiefly, if not exclus- 

 ively, in connection with a certain midnight ride, in which 

 a lantern in a church steeple also played an important 

 part. 



His achievement in this instance, while it has earned him 

 an immortal place in fame and history, has overshadowed 

 his renown as one of the most eminent and skilful of early 

 American engravers and silversmiths. His work, of which 

 much remains to bear convincing testimony to his taste and 

 skill, is characterized by beauty of workmanship together 

 with a delicacy of design and minute and careful balance of 

 proportion, in which he easily excels, even among the many 

 skilled Colonial silverworkers of early times in Boston. 



