Date: Fri 02-Jul-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Worcester-Revere

Full Text:

Worcester Art Museum Acquires Major Revere Collection

(with cut)

WORCESTER, MASS. - Provident Companies, Inc, has announced that it will donate

the world's largest private collection of Paul Revere silver to the Worcester

Art Museum. A committee of employees of the former Worcester-based Paul Revere

Life Insurance Company, which Provident acquired in 1997, chose the Worcester

Art Museum as the recipient of this gift, which also includes two engravings

made by Paul Revere and a collection of Colonial period furniture.

Carefully collected by the Paul Revere Life Insurance Company over the past

three decades, the gift increases the museum's holdings of Revere works from

59 pieces to a total of 115, making it one of the two largest Revere

collections in the world.

Commenting on why Provident is donating these objects to the Worcester Art

Museum, J. Harold Chandler, Provident's chairman, president and CEO, said:

"Paul Revere Life Insurance Company had kept the collection private for nearly

three decades, and Provident wanted to allow scholars and the general public

greater access to these works. The Worcester Art Museum is the logical place

to showcase these beautiful pieces. In addition, the museum is preeminent in

Central Massachusetts in its facilities for the display, study, and

conservation of works of art."

The museum will host a year-long exhibition of its entire Revere holdings,

including the Provident gifts, plus loans from the American Antiquarian

Society. It will open on Patriot's Day, April 17, 2000.

Already famous for its Revere silver, the museum's collection includes the

first and last pieces Revere ever made. 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 museum.

In addition, the museum owns silver works created by Paul Revere's father,

Appollos Rivoire, who journeyed from France to Boston in 1715 and became a

silversmith in this country.

The two engravings Provident is giving to the museum will join 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

Provident prints engraved by Revere depict the famous "Boston Massacre."

In addition to the Revere works, the period furniture Provident is donating

features American furniture from Colonial times up to the present. The four

pieces include an Aaron Willard tall case clock, a Queen Anne high chest with

corkscrew finials, a cherry Chippendale secretary desk, and a Federal

sideboard with serpentine front.