ahistorical Reproduction, Paul Revere Teapot

raised copper with powder coat, cast bronze finial, carved painted poplar, 2021

  ahistorical Reproduction, Paul Revere Teapot is a raised copper teapot, with cast bronze finial and carved poplar handle. It has been powder coated to make the copper food safe and to add color. The form and surface decorations are based on a late 18th Century teapot by Paul Revere.

This particular teapot interested me because of its curvaceous shape and its opulent cast and chased decorations. It stands in contrast to most of Revere's work which is in the more restrained neoclassical style. Much of the decorative art around the Revolutionary and early Federal periods in the US was in the classical revival style, which visually referenced the historic Greek and Roman democracies the US sought to emulate. The teapot I chose to reproduce is more aesthetically aligned with French Rococo, a notoriously decadent style which verges on campy to the modern eye.

  I've been fascinated by the relationship between Revere's political activity and his craft aesthetic. I'm mulling over the parallels between a teapot and the Tea Act, the conflict between a pointedly democratic aesthetic applied to an elite craft like silversmithing, and the resonance of remaking a teapot with copper instead of silver and painted poplar instead of ebony.