Salt

Maker: Paul Revere (American, 1735–1818)

ca. 1768–70

American Decorative Arts

On view, 1st floor, American Decorative Arts before 1900

This salt by the Boston silversmith Paul Revere is engraved with the phrase “The Illustrous [sic] NINETY-TWO.” The Illustrious Ninety-Two were the members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who, in 1768, defied the orders of King George III by voting not to rescind the letter they had sent to the other colonies urging united action against the repressive measures of the British Parliament. The Illustrious Ninety-Two were associated with the Sons of Liberty, who were also commemorated by Revere in a silver punch bowl now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The punch bowl and this salt are two of the only pieces of American silver overtly linked to the political turmoil that led up to the Revolutionary War.

Medium

Silver

Dimensions

1 7/16 × 2 in. (3.7 × 5.1 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.961

Geography

Made in Boston, Massachusetts

Culture

American

Period

18th century

Classification

Containers

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
R.T. Haines Halsey (1865–1942), New York, NY, before 1906–29; purchased by Francis P. Garvan (1875–1937), New York, NY, 1929–30; gift to Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930
Bibliography
  • Patricia E. Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1998), 823
  • Kathryn C. Buhler and Graham Hood, American Silver in the Yale University Art Gallery, 2 vols. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1970), vol. 1, pp. 185, 187, no. 241, ill
  • John Marshall Phillips, Masterpieces of New England Silver, 1650–1800: An Exhibition Held June 18 through September 10, 1939, Gallery of Fine Arts, Yale University (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1939), 70–71, no. 157
  • R. T. Haines Halsey and Elizabeth Tower, The Homes of Our Ancestors as Shown in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page and Company, 1935), 76, fig. 65
  • R. T. Elmes, "Boston the Cradle of Early American Silversmiths," The Jewelers' Circular (February 4, 1920), 161–62, ill
  • American Silver, the Work of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Silversmiths, exh. cat. (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1906), 81, no. 233, pls. 10, 21, 22, ill
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

salts

Marks

"PR" in small rectangle on bottom

Inscriptions

Engraved: The Illustrous NINETY-TWO around the bowl; W H E on bottom

Technical metadata and APIs

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