In 2001, Brian O' Grady, the Director of the Council on Aging in Williamstown, Mass., was cleaning out a closet in the Senior Center when Hazel Burchick, one of the seniors in town, wondered out loud: 'Whatever happened to the old cane we used to give people?'
O'Grady, many years Burchick's junior, had no idea what Burchick meant when she asked about the "old cane." Curious, he began his own research and discovered that the cane to which Burchick referred wasn't just any old cane. It was a Boston Post cane — an ebony cane adorned with an engraved golden knob that, by tradition, 700 New England towns once presented to their oldest living citizens on behalf of the Boston Post, the region's major newspaper in the early 1900s.
Most people know Paul Revere for his famous ride on April 18th, 1775, through the Middlesex countryside warning John Hancock, Samuel Adams, and the local residents about the British approach. But fewer know that this master of military intrigue was also a master of intriguing silver.
Paul Revere learned the silversmith trade from his father, Apollos Rivoire, and became the most prominent craftsman of his day. His style evolved with time in response to the changing tastes of his clientele. By the end of the 18th century, Revere produced elaborate pieces in repoussé (reverse hammering to create an exterior relief) and also pieces with finely detailed neoclassical engraving.
