J. L. BELL is a Massachusetts writer who specializes in (among other things) the start of the American Revolution in and around Boston. He is particularly interested in the experiences of children in 1765-75. He has published scholarly papers and popular articles for both children and adults. He was consultant for an episode of History Detectives, and contributed to a display at Minute Man National Historic Park.

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Sunday, November 28, 2021

Glimpsing Another Copy of Revere’s Massacre

Ben Edwards alerted me to this report from Antiques and the Arts about sales at the Doyle auction house early this month that set records for works by Paul Revere.

The items on sale all appear to have come from the collection of Monroe F. Dreher, an mid-20th-century advertising executive, and his wife Elizabeth. The “period rooms” in their Connecticut home was featured in The Magazine Antiques in 1954. Dreher was known for recording the provenances of the pieces he bought, many descended within families, and his collection hasn’t been on display or on the market for decades.

Among the silverware sold was a “Liverpool” pitcher by Revere from 1805 that sold for $94,500, or about three times the estimated price, and a cream jug made by Paul Revere, Jr., in 1783 for $22,680.

But the major sale was a copy of Revere’s “Bloody Massacre” engraving for $429,000, a new record for that print.

This is yet another example of the print with the face of one victim, upside-down and half-hidden within the crowd in the lower left corner, colored a little darker than the faces of other people around him.

This coloring can be only subtly different, enough to make one wonder whether it’s just an artifact of time, or that face can be a dark brown, as in the Philadelphia public library’s copy. This example is somewhere in between.

That pattern of an extra color wash, along with the dual chest wounds painted onto several copies, has convinced me that figure was always supposed to represent Crispus Attucks. Revere wasn’t able to depict him as a person of color in the engraving alone, but the coloring rendered him an individual.

1 comment:

Charles Bahne said...

Having examined (via the internet) numerous copies of the Massacre print, I can say that this is an extremely fine specimen, much better than the versions which some major museums and libraries have posted on their websites. I'm sure that was the justification for the high price, over 3.5 times the high end of the pre-auction estimate. There is very little discoloration of the paper, and no visible paper losses, even at the high magnification available on the auction house's image viewer. The Doyle catalogue description mentions "very skillfully repaired tears" but there is no evidence of them on the front of the print.

The quality of the handcoloring is also superb, and it maintains its original brightness. Different artists colored different copies of the print, accounting for some of the variations in Crispus Attucks' skin tone. And some of those artists were more skilled than others.

Several years ago, pre-internet, the Old State House mounted an exhibit with reproductions of 9 or 10 different versions of the print, side by side, so you could easily compare the color variations. Now you can do that online if you know where to look.

Too bad you weren't the winning bidder, John. This would have looked nice hanging on your kitchen wall, over your shoulder when you do your Zoom presentations. Maybe next time one of these prints comes up for sale, you can let your readers know and we can do a GoFundMe for you.