Description:
Silver tablespoon with a elongated deep oval bowl with a shell on the back of the long handle and a spatulate upturned end mid-rib on the upper side, which is marked "P. REVERE" in a rectangle on the underside of the handle for Paul Revere II (1734-1818), and engraved with the initials "O / IE" in Roman letters. According to Donald Friary in "Antiques": "One mystery in the Deerfield church silver is a tablespoon marked "P. REVERE." It does not appear in any of the early church records or on any early list of church silver. Spoons, usually a single tablespoon, are or were owned by a significant number of New England churches; however, their use is not clear. They may have been for sprinkling the water during a baptism, or perhaps to add water to wine in the communion service. E. Alfred Jones in "The Old Silver of American Churches" lists forty-two spoons. The only one for which there is any evidence of its intended use is in the First Baptist Church of Boston, where a church vote on May 8, 1727, recommends using the balance of William Snell's legacy for "one Spoon...with his name upon it for ye use of ye Lord's Table." The Revere spoon at Deerfield does not appear in a list of Deerfield church silver loaned to the Connecticut Valley Historical Society in 1949. It is included in a list "In Vault at First National Bank - Greenfield - May 1960" in the church records. It was perhaps given to the church in the 1950s by a now anonymous donor, to be shown with the Revere tankard, when the church silver was on view at Deerfield Academy. Condition: Wear on the spoon, especially on the handle, and evidence of extensive polishing suggest that for the most of its life it was in domestic, rather than ecclesiastical, use. Formerly L85.07
Tags:
ceremonies Link to share this object record:
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