American Revolution
Paul Revere Engraved Bookplate Print For "Isaiah Thomas" the American Patriot & Historic Mass. Newspaper Publisher
c. 1798 Paul Revere Jr., Original Engraved Copper-Plate Bookplate Printed for Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831), American Patriot, Newspaper Publisher, and Founder of the American Antiquarian Society, Extremely Fine.
This authentic Paul Revere metal-cut Bookplate was Engraved by Revere at Boston for the historic Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas (1749-1831), performed the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Worcester, Massachusetts, and reported the first account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which on April 19, 1775 began the American Revolutionary War. This uniface Bookplate measures about 3.5" x 2.5" and is sharply printed in deep black upon the correct white laid period paper being slightly trimmed as shown, likely for placement into a smaller format book owned by Isaiah Thomas. Some conservation has been performed at the corners, presumably to some paper loss when this plate was removed from a book. An illustration of this Bookplate with a full description is found on pages 163 to 165 in Clarence Brigham's 1954 reference, "The Engravings of Paul Revere", by the American Antiquarian Society (which Thomas founded). A historic example of a Paul Revere's Engraved Bookplate for American Patriot Isaiah Thomas.
Isaiah Thomas (1749 - 1831), was an American Patriot, Newspaper Publisher and Author. He performed the First Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Worcester, Massachusetts and reported the very first account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He was the Founder of the American Antiquarian Society.
In Boston, in 1774, Isaiah Thomas published the Royal American Magazine, which was continued for a short time by Joseph Greenleaf, and which contained many historic engravings by Paul Revere. He issued in Boston the Massachusetts Spy three times each week, then (under his sole ownership) as a semi-weekly, and beginning in 1771, as a weekly which soon espoused the Whig cause and which the government tried to suppress.
On the April 16, 1775 (three days before the Battle of Concord, in which he took part), Thomas took his presses from Boston and set them up in Worcester, where he was also postmaster for a time. There he published and sold books, built a paper-mill and bindery, and continued the paper until 1802 save for gaps in 1776-1778 and in 1786-1788. The Spy supported George Washington and the Federalist Party.