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Primary sourceArtifactcirca 1760

Silver Porringer, circa 1760

Paul Revere · circa 1760

A silver porringer made by Paul Revere around 1760, before the Revolution, showing his early silversmithing work.

Made early in Revere's career, this porringer shows his silversmithing trade before the Revolution.

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A polished silver porringer, a shallow round bowl with a flat cast handle pierced with scrolling foliate openwork, resting on a gray surface. The bowl's interior reflects light and its rim is plain.
Paul Revere, Silver Porringer, circa 1760.

About this source

What it is

This silver porringer, made around 1760 by Paul Revere, is a shallow bowl with a flat cast handle pierced with scrolling foliate openwork.

Why it matters

Made well before Revere became famous for his role in the American Revolution, this porringer shows his early career as a silversmith in Boston. It reminds students that Revere's trade was established long before the events of 1775 made him a Patriot icon.

Look closer

  • What does the pierced handle design tell you about the skill needed to make this object?
  • How might an object from Revere's early career change how we think of him?
  • Why do museums value everyday objects like this alongside documents and letters?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Paul Revere on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Hand-colored engraving titled 'The Bloody Massacre' showing British redcoat soldiers firing volleys of musket smoke at a crowd in King Street, Boston, with bodies on the ground and a Town House building in the background. Verse text and a caption appear below.Painting

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Oil portrait of a man with short brown hair in a white linen shirt and dark green vest, resting his right hand against his chin. His left hand holds a polished silver teapot on a round wooden stand. Tools lie on the dark wooden table in front of him against a black background.Painting

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Portrait of Paul Revere

John Singleton Copley · 1768

A large polished silver punch bowl on a glass pedestal in a museum gallery, with engraved inscription and scrolling decoration around its outer rim. Behind it hang gilt-framed portraits on gray walls, including a man in a white shirt and dark waistcoat resting his hand on his chin beside a teapot, and a display case holding silver pieces.Artifact

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Sons of Liberty Bowl

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Scanned page 27 of an 1861 magazine, headed 'Paul Revere's Ride', showing the poem's title and opening stanzas in two columns of printed text, with prose from the preceding article above.Book

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · 1860

Exterior front view of a two-story wooden clapboard house with a shingled gabled roof, diamond-paned leaded windows, and a stone foundation. A brick chimney rises at the right, and a dark wooden door with a metal grate is on the ground floor.Artifact

Primary source

Paul Revere House

c. 1680

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