Revere Communion Vessels on Sale in January

The Boston Globe reports that on 21 January Christie’s will auction off a collection of silver vessels that the First Parish of Beverly decided to sell in order to pay for necessary building repairs.

The items include a ewer, a quart can, and two communion plates made by the workshop of Paul Revere around 1800.

According to the Globe:

Congregants originally used the collection for communion, but the church stopped holding regular communion services after it converted to Unitarianism in 1830. By the early 1900s, church leaders had moved the silver to a vault in a bank across the street for safekeeping. In recent years, according to Charles E. Wainwright, chairman of the church historical committee, only a few of the items were used regularly…

The congregation voted to keep a “baptismal bowl, a tankard, and a goblet”—and, of course, the church roof.