40th Anniversary: Masonic Symbols in Decorative Arts

Forty years ago, the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library published the book Masonic­­ Symbols in American Decorative Arts to accompany an exhibition on the topic. The book, written in 1976 by former museum curator Barbara Franco, highlighted and contextualized 146 American decorative arts objects with Masonic symbols. Decorative arts, often defined as the design and decoration of functional objects, include glassware, furniture, ceramics, textiles, basketry, and clocks. Artist's and craftsmen commonly incorporated Masonic symbols into their designs in the 1700s and 1800s; a period of rapid growth for American Masonic and fraternal organizations.

The Museum has acquired more Masonic decorative arts objects since 1976. Many of the artifacts featured in Franco's publication have been re-photographed and continue to be a part of our exhibitions. Two of these items are highlighted below and have recently been exhibited at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library.

This pocket watch is featured in our current exhibition “Keeping Time: Clockmakers and Collectors" open through 2017. The watch, designed and manufactured by the Dudley and Hamilton Watch Companies, was made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, around 1925. William Wallace Dudley's (1851–1938) company produced distinctive watches with movement parts shaped like Masonic symbols. This particular watch includes a trowel, square and compasses, level, bible, and shoe.

This Worshipful Master’s Chair made around 1870 and marked by maker John Luker (b. 1838) was featured in the exhibition "‘Every Variety of Paintings for Lodges’: Decorated Furniture, Paintings and Ritual Objects from the Collection." You can find out more about the chair in this 2008 blog post.The chair is also currently included in the online exhibition of the same name, available here.

Find these objects and more in our new decorative arts album on Flickr! Like, share, and comment on objects you find on our Flickr page.

 

 

 

 

Captions:

Pocket Watch, ca. 1925, Dudley Watch Co. and Hamilton Watch Company, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Gift of Hazel D. Hubley in memory of Bert H. Hubley, 86.32a-b. Photograph by David Bohl.

Masonic Worshipful Master's Chair, ca. 1870, John Luker, Vinton County, Ohio, Gift of the Estate of Charles V. Hagler, 85.20.1.1. Photograph by David Bohl.

Reference:

Barbara Franco, Masonic Symbols in American Decorative Arts, Lexington, Massachusetts: Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Inc., 1976.

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Lecture: “Making and Marketing Furniture in Massachusetts, 1790-1820”

Saturday, March 19, 2016

2 PM

Lecture by Brock Jobe, Professor Emeritus of American Decorative Arts, Winterthur Museum

In this lecture at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, noted decorative arts historian Brock Jobe will recount the little-known story of the transformation of the furniture making trade in federal period Massachusetts. In Colonial America, furniture makers were craftsmen who utilized the apprentice system to fill specific orders from their customers. After the Revolution these craftsmen began to develop business strategies that promoted their products to a range of customers. This led to standardized production of furniture.

Using the example of a cabinetmaker in Sutton, Massachusetts, who was working during the early 1800s, Professor Jobe will discuss how these changes in business strategies altered the face of furniture making in Massachusetts. Eventually these changes led to a furniture making industry that ranked among the largest in the country.

Professor Jobe has authored multiple books on furniture making in New England. He has worked as a museum curator, administrator and professor at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. Professor Jobe has received the President’s Award from Old Sturbridge Village and the Award of Merit from the Antiques Dealers’ Association of America.

This lecture is made possible by the generous support of the Ruby W. and LaVon P. Linn Foundation and is the third of five talks in the 2016 lecture series, "Enterprise and Craft in the Young Nation".

A Fashionable and “Ancient” Masonic Chair

Arm Chair, ca. 1790. Probably Massachusetts. Special Acquisitions Fund and in part through the generosity of Harold French, 86.40. Photo by David Bohl.

At a quick glance, this mahogany chair in the collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library resembles other fashionable armchairs produced in New England during the late 1700s and early 1800s. A second look shows that a craftsman designed this chair with a Masonic customer in mind. He decorated the center of the back of the chair, or splat, with cleverly carved overlapping compasses, a square and a level. Two rosettes help anchor the symbols to the circle enclosing them.

While the symbols on the chair’s splat are Masonic, its overall design follows the popular style of the day. In creating fashionable home furnishings in the late 1700s and early 1800s, American furniture makers often looked to English examples for models of stylish work. This chair, with its shield shaped back, short, curved arms and elaborately pierced splat shows some of the stylish elements codified in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide; or Repository of Designs for every Article of Household Furniture in the Newest and Most Approved Taste. Alice Hepplewhite (dates unknown), the widow of furniture maker George (d. 1786), first published this illustrated work in London in 1788. Some American furniture makers knew about Hepplewhite’s and similar British pattern books, such as Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Brook, first published in 1791. These books were also one way Americans learned about the latest fashion. Americans formed their impression of the current modes by  viewing furniture in shops and homes and from up-to-date engravings and illustrations imported from Britain and Europe. Clients ordering furniture relied on craftsmen to be conversant with fashions of the day, but made specific requests about style, materials and cost, to see their wishes in fashionable furnishings fulfilled.

Unfortunately, we do not know who first ordered this chair, or what purpose it was intended to serve. Did the person who commissioned this chair want to use it at home, or was it made to beautify a lodge room? Judging from this chair’s style, manner of construction and materials, it was crafted in New England, perhaps in Boston, Massachusetts. An inscription on the frame of the upholstered seat notes it was “Originally the property of Genl. Amasa Davis.” Though intriguing, this note does not clarify this chair’s origin. Amasa Davis (1742-1825) of Boston, a merchant, was quartermaster general for Massachusetts from 1787 to 1825 and used the title of General. However, no record points to him having been a member of a Masonic lodge. As well, several men named Amasa Davis made their home in Massachusetts during the time this chair was first made. One even belonged to Morning Star Lodge in Worcester, Massachusetts, though little more is known about him. Fortunately records from Union Lodge in Dorchester, Massachusetts, speak to the chair’s later history. Member John Mears, Jr., (1821-1912), gave an “ancient masonic chair” to Union Lodge in 1864. His gift was one of several presentations of furniture made to the lodge to mark the organization’s move to a new building in 1864. Mear’s gift was set aside for use of the lodge’s Tyler until at least the early 1900s. So, although the early history of this intriguing and fashionable chair still needs to be uncovered, it eventually added a touch of history and tradition to a Masonic lodge room. If you have any ideas about this chair, let us know in the comments section below.

 

Counting Down to 2013

2013 marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of the parent organization for the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library.  In 1813, the Scottish Rite Supreme Council for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, USA, was formed.  Over the coming months, you will read more about this anniversary and the history of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction on our blog.  We will also open an exhibition about the NMJ next spring (check our website for details as Spring 2013 approaches!).

The Museum & Library actively collects objects and documents from the Scottish Rite.  Many of the objects already in our collection are gifts from a Scottish Rite member or local group to the governing body, the Supreme Council, which is located in Lexington, Massachusetts, on the same campus as the Museum.

One of the most eyecatching gifts now in the collection is a lectern that was presented to the Supreme Council in 1931 by the DeWitt Clinton Consistory of the Valley of Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Constructed from several different woods, and inlaid with miniature Masonic symbols, the lectern shows an Egyptian Revival style and sports a book holder at top supported by the Scottish Rite's double-headed eagle symbol.  A silver plaque on the lectern credits the design of the piece to Edgar A. Somes, the inlay to T.A. Conti, and the fabrication to Century Furniture Company and Associates.  Grand Rapids, Michigan, was a center of American furnituremaking during the late 1800s and early 1900s; the pride that makers took in their craft is evident from this lectern.

The lectern was presented to Commander Leon M. Abbott at the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction's 1931 annual meeting in Detroit, Michigan.  At the meeting, a representative from Michigan explained that the Egyptian style was chosen because of its connection to Masonic rituals and symbols.

Scottish Rite Lectern, 1931, Century Furniture Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Gift of the Supreme Council, 33^o, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, USA, 2010.042.31.  Photographs by David Bohl.

New to the Collection: A Masonic Cupboard from Indiana

Over the summer in 2010, we were alerted to the availability of this Masonic cupboard, which reportedly came from the “old Masonic Hall” in Madison, Indiana, but had most recently been part of a private collection in Ohio. After some negotiations, the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library purchased the cupboard for its collection and had it transported to Lexington, Massachusetts.

We are always on the lookout for Masonic furniture, especially if it is accompanied by a story or documentation of its previous use. We were very excited to add the cupboard to our collection – we do not have another piece like it, nor do we have many pieces of Masonic furniture from the Midwestern United States. The symbols on the doors suggest that the local Order of the Eastern Star group organized their papers in one section, while the town’s Masonic lodge used the other two. Pencil notations remain inside over some of the dividers to remind previous users about which types of papers went where. A new Masonic building was constructed in Madison, Indiana, in 1871 and the cupboard may have been made or purchased around that time.

The cupboard has recently been placed on view in the Museum’s lobby area as part of a new exhibition of recent acquisitions for the collection (see the photograph at right). The Museum actively works to improve and refine its collection of over 17,000 objects through gifts and purchases. The new display highlights some of our recent acquisitions in order to recognize our donors and to demonstrate the kinds of things that we collect. We plan to rotate these objects once or twice a year. We hope you will plan a visit to the Museum soon – and then leave a comment here about your favorite recent acquisition!

Cupboard, 1870-1900, probably Indiana, Collection of the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Museum purchase through the generosity of Helen G. Deffenbaugh in memory of George S. Deffenbaugh, 2010.039a-r.

References:

“Masonic Chit-Chat,” The Freemason’s Monthly Magazine 30 (July 1871), 288.

Dwight L. Smith, Goodly Heritage: One Hundred Fifty Years of Craft Freemasonry in Indiana (Indianapolis, 1968).