Perez Morton Bookplate 1784

Curator: Take a look at this exquisite bookplate. Created around 1784 by Paul Revere, it's an engraving in ink, made for Perez Morton. The bookplate presents a coat of arms. Editor: The craftsmanship is superb, considering the scale! It’s delicate but powerful, with that rampant lion. How does it function in a society wrestling with identity? Curator: Excellent question. Heraldry, even in revolutionary America, served as a potent symbol of lineage, status, and belonging. This lion, combined with the motto "Deo Tum Patriae" – "For God and Country" – would resonate deeply. Morton clearly aligns himself with tradition. Editor: What's fascinating is that Revere was so crucial in designing money and weapons for the US, and that here is another side to his labor: he takes up this more artisanal production for someone of note. How would the materiality of print have affected Morton's own conception of himself? Curator: Indeed, this very personalized heraldry is carefully composed in lines, forms, and allegorical suggestion. Look closely: even the hand clutching at the very top, extending itself downwards, gestures both to divine provenance, perhaps, and simultaneously clutches property. Revere has thought of the details of making this visual emblem emotionally powerful. Editor: I’m struck by the contradiction, a revolution built on the back of the kinds of fine details which required specialized, lengthy labor. Curator: Yes. In owning a book marked in such a personalized manner, Morton’s legacy itself became enmeshed in both its visual expression and in a material culture of the book. We’re seeing a moment of negotiation in selfhood between visual memory and revolutionary promise. Editor: It is tempting to believe it all broke suddenly with the Revolution. Curator: That would not do justice to those subtle accommodations within it. Look closer. What you find reveals those paradoxes in ways not written in history. Editor: Beautiful. Thanks for helping me linger with that thought.