Paul Revere - Old North Church Bicentennial Lantern — Sterling Silver — Numbered — Authorized by the Concord Antiquarian Society
Paul Revere - Old North Church Bicentennial Lantern — Sterling Silver — Numbered — Authorized by the Concord Antiquarian Society
Updated at 9:10 pm on April 4: This has been sold.
This is the closest reproduction—in shape and design, though here made of beautiful Sterling Silver, not tin—I've seen of the lantern used to signal from Old North Church the night of Paul Revere's ride. (Others rode, too.) Joseph Warren sent Revere to Lexington, believing that the troops planned to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two leaders of the Sons of Liberty, who were staying at a house in Lexington.
This lantern was authorized by the Concord Antiquarian Society, the owners of the only one of the original two known to exist, and created for the Bicentennial in 1976. These were made in limited editions and registered editions. This one is made out of sterling silver; the plate on the Mahogany base carries the registration number.
Note: While this one probably functions just fine as a lantern, I recommend keeping this one on display and not lighting it.
You can learn more about the original here.
The role of the signals conveyed by the lanterns is sometimes misunderstood. Here's the explanation from the Paul Revere Museum:
"Revere contacted an unidentified friend (probably Robert Newman, the sexton of Christ Church in Boston’s North End) and instructed him to hold two lit lanterns in the tower of Christ Church (now called the Old North Church) as a signal to fellow Sons of Liberty across the Charles River in case Revere was unable to leave town.
"The two lanterns were a predetermined signal stating that the British troops planned to row 'by sea' across the Charles River to Cambridge, rather than march 'by land' out Boston Neck."
You can read their longer explanation here.
You may also be interested in the very dramatic framed oil painting we have of Revere's ride.
— Lee Wright | Founder
Shipping: $45. Will be shipped UPS with a signature required.
Mission
Mission
Your purchases support our mission to engage people with local history and to support historic sites and history organizations across the country.
New in Rare Finds this week
-
Baked tin chromite lithograph of George Henry Story's painting of Lincoln — 1931
Regular price $ 795.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
"Forty Etchings, from Sketches Made with the Camera Lucida" by Basil Hall — 1829
Regular price $ 195.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
"Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion" and "Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization" — 1853 - 1867
Regular price $ 29.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
1901 and 1908 bound volumes of "Harper's Weekly" from January to June in a large bound book
Regular price $ 195.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
Seven Years' Residence in the Great Deserts of North America — Two volumes
Regular price $ 995.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
"Hochelaga; Or, England in the New World" — Two Volumes
Regular price $ 395.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
"View of the Climate and Soil of the United States of America" by C.F. Volney — 1804
Regular price $ 495.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
"Mountain, Lake, and River" by W.H. Bartlett and Others — 1884
Regular price $ 95.00Regular priceUnit price / per -
Annual reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution — Three Volumes
Regular price $ 295.00Regular priceUnit price / per