Our Decorative Arts

	The Exhibition
	The Gift from UnumProvident
	Worcester Art Museum Decorative Arts
	Paul Revere
	Exhibition Home

American decorative arts have been an important component of the Worcester Art Museum's collection since the 1905 bequest of the Museum's founder, Stephen Salisbury III, which added rare and important examples of colonial silver by distinguished artists such as Edward Winslow (1669-1753), John Edwards (1671-1746), William Swan (1715-1774), and Paul Revere (1734-1818).

Already famous for its Revere silver, the Worcester Art Museum's collection includes a very early Revere work, (a creampot based on designs used by his father and teacher), and the last firmly dated piece that Revere ever made (a pitcher dated 1806). The Museum is also the home of Revere's largest commission, "The Paine Service," which he made for Lois Orne, the bride of Dr. William Paine, in 1773. Of the original 45 pieces that Revere created for Paine, the 30 works known to have survived are now at the Worcester Art Museum. In addition, the Museum owns silver works created by Paul Revere's father, who changed his name from Apollos Rivoire to Paul Revere (1702-1754). The elder Revere journeyed from France to Boston in 1715 and became a silversmith in this country.

The two engravings UnumProvident gave to the Worcester Art Museum have joined the Museum's distinguished collection of 17 Revere prints, which the Museum acquired in 1909 from the famous Charles E. Goodspeed collection in Boston. One of the UnumProvident prints, a fine impression of Revere's best-known engraving, depicts the famous "Boston Massacre."