Among the eighteenth century American silversmiths there are some that stand out prominently, and the exhibition of old American plate held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1906 brought them to notice. There is the work of John Dixwell from 1680 to 1735 who was the son of Colonel John Dixwell, one of the regicides who fled to America in the early years of the Restoration. But the historic punch bowl made by Paul Revere was the pièce de résistance, and was shown together with some forty other of his creations. It was made for the fifteen “Sons of Liberty.” The inscription runs: “To the memory of the glorious Ninety-Two members of the Honourable House of Representatives of the Massachusetts Bay, who, undaunted by the insolent menaces of villains in power, from a strict regard to conscience and the Liberties of their constituents, on the 30th June, 1768, Voted Not To Rescind.”
But Paul Revere, silversmith, has another claim to renown as a patriot. Longfellow, in his Tales of a Wayside Inn, has a poem telling of “Paul Revere’s Ride,” seven years after he fashioned this punch bowl. The story runs that he waited, booted and spurred, on the Charlestown shore for secret news to carry through all the countryside.
... If the British march
By land or sea from the town to night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,—
One, if by land, and two, if by sea.
We know the story of the opening shots at Lexington, the obstinate foolishness of the North Ministry and the deaf ear George III turned to the wisdom of Chatham. Longfellow pays posterity’s tribute to the silversmith:—
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!