PAUL REVERE ENGRAVING. REVERE, PAUL. 1735-1818. The Mitred Minuet. From The Royal American Magaz...

PAUL REVERE ENGRAVING. REVERE, PAUL. 1735-1818. The Mitred Minuet. From The Royal American Magazine, Vol. I, number 10, [Boston,] October 1774. Engraving, 120 x 183 mm (plate), 150 x 217 mm (sheet), engraved at the head: 'No XV. Engrav'd for the Royal American Magazine. Vol. 1,' and beneath 'The Mitred Minuet' and signed in print lower right, 'P. Revere Sc,' minor chipping to margins of sheet, some toning. WITH: The Mitred Minuet. London, 1774. Engraving, 110 x 175 mm (plate), titled beneath 'The Mitred Minuet' by an anonymous artist for The London Magazine. RARE PAUL REVERE ENGRAVING OF ONE OF THE FIVE INTOLERABLE ACTS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT, the Quebec Bill, first appearing in May 1774 in The London Magazine, and copied by Paul Revere for The Royal American Magazine, October, 1774. The engraving depicts Anglican bishops celebrating the Quebec Bill as representatives of the Bristish government look on approvingly, all being overseen by the devil. The Quebec Bill, issued in 1774 alongside a series of 'Intolerable Acts' which many colonists understood as a violation of their natural rights, expanded the territory of Quebec, impinging on Ohio Company land claims in the region. Combined with the Boston Port Act (in response to the Boston Tea Party), the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the notorious Quartering Act, the Quebec Bill represented one of the five 'intolerable acts,' which spurred colonists to revolution. Although the acts were mainly aimed at punishing colonists in Massachusetts, the tyrannical nature resonated through the colonies, spurring Richard Henry Lee to characterize it as 'a most wicked System for destroying the liberty of America.' Paul Revere, silversmith and midnight rider, would often take up satires critical of Britain's treatment of the colonies and re-engrave them, sometimes altering details with a pro-American bent. Here we have the rarely seen original engraving, anonymously drawn for the British audience, as well as Paul Revere's original American representation of one of the 'intolerable acts' leading headlong into the American Revolution. Stauffer, number 2688. See George, Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, V, p 166-7. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing