New to the Collection: Mark Medal Engraved by John Bower

Mark Medal Made for Conrad Poshardt, 1812. John Bower, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Special Acquisitions Fund, 2022.068.3. Photo courtesy of Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc.

Recently the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library added an intriguing mark medal from Pennsylvania to its collection. Along with the name of its owner, Conrad Poshardt, this keystone-shaped badge is inscribed with the name of the craftsman who engraved it, John Bower.

In April 1810 Bower advertised his services in the Democratic Press of Philadelphia, noting that he undertook his business as an engraver “in all its various branches, with neatness and dispatch” at “No. 80 North Fourth, near Race street.” A few months later, in November, he informed the paper’s readers that he had changed the location of his business with this announcement: “John Bower, engraver, has removed to No. 1, Sterling Alley, where the above business is carried on….” Sterling Alley was just a block or so from his previous address. City directories list John Bower as an engraver at these and other addresses in the same neighborhood from 1810 through 1819. In 1810 census takers recorded a Philadelphia resident named John Bower working as an engraver with a family of 3 at two locations in August and again in October, likely reflecting Bower’s change of address during the year.

In the 1830s critic William Dunlap noted that John Bower “made plates of inferior execution in Philadelphia about 1810.” Dunlap’s tepid assessment of his skills notwithstanding, Bower worked a number of projects. Examples of Bower’s work that have survived to this day include illustrations for several books, prints, a trade card for his neighbor, a plaque for a lockable chest, and this mark medal (at left) made for Conrad Poshardt, a member of Herman’s Lodge No. 125.

Bower signed Poshardt’s mark medal “Br. J. Bower, Sculp.” on the side of the jewel decorated with an arch (below). In adding “Br.,” an abbreviation of the word brother, to his signature on this medal, Bower identified himself as a Freemason. Membership records at the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania note that a man named John Bower took his degrees at Lodge No. 72 in Philadelphia in the first half of 1811. He withdrew from the lodge in the fall. The lodge readmitted Bower as a Master Mason in 1814. Bower’s profession is not noted in the Grand Lodge records, but the J. Bower who signed this medal is a strong candidate for being the man who belonged to Lodge No. 72.

The medal that Bower created for Conrad Poshardt is in the keystone shape favored by many Pennsylvania Mark Masons in the early 1800s.

Mark Medal Made for Conrad Poshardt, 1812. John Bower, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Special Acquisitions Fund, 2022.068.3. Photo courtesy of Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc.

You can see another example here; a mark medal made for Samuel A. Van Deursen in 1812. In addition to the owner’s name and Poshardt’s personally chosen mark—a group of seven Masonic symbols contained within the letters HTWSSTKS--Bower engraved the name of the owner’s lodge—Herman’s Lodge N[o]. 125—and a date expressed as "Feby 5812", indicating February 1812, on this medal. Two years before, in 1810, a group of Freemasons, who described themselves “all Germans by Birth” who did “not possess a perfect knowledge of the English Language” petitioned the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to form “a Lodge whose Labours are carried on in the German Language.” The Grand Lodge granted this request and issued a warrant for Lodge No. 125, called Herman’s Lodge. As the petitioners had planned, this lodge undertook its business and ritual in German. Hopefully further research will uncover more about Conrad Poshardt, his lodge, and other work undertaken by his brother Freemason, engraver John Bower.

References:

William Dunlap, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States, vol. 3 (Boston: C. E. Goodspeed, 1918), 284.

Mantle Fielding, American Engravers Upon Copper and Steel (Philadelphia, 1917), 70-71.

Reprint of the Minutes of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania, vol. II 1801-1810, vol. III 1811-1816 (Philadelphia: The Grand Lodge, 1897), 497-498, 13.

 

Many thanks to Cathy Giaimo of The Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Franklin's Favorite Likeness

Benjamin Franklin’s (1706-1790) lifelong commitment to Freemasonry is well known.  After becoming a Freemason in Philadelphia in 1731, he was active in the fraternity for over fifty years.  He served as Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1734 and Provincial Grand Master of Pennsylvania in 1749.  In addition to some of the more common prints depicting Franklin as a Freemason, we are also fortunate to have this terra cotta medallion in the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library collection.

Created in 1777 by Jean-Baptiste Nini (1717-1786), it shows Franklin wearing a fur cap and dates to the time he spent in France as an American diplomat.  Franklin felt that this portrait was an accurate likeness of himself and by 1779 wrote to his daughter that it helped make his face “as well known as that of the moon.”

These medallions continue to be popular today – they are offered at auctions around the United States on a regular basis.  Nini, an Italian sculptor working in Paris, created the medallions using drawings by other artists.  Eventually, five versions of the Franklin medallion were made.  Nini used terra cotta cast from a wax mold, allowing him to make a large number from one mold.

Medallion, 1777, Jean-Baptiste Nini (1717-1786), France, Special Acquisitions Fund, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, 86.12a.  Photograph by David Bohl.

Sources Consulted:

Charles Coleman Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1962).

William B. Willcox, ed., The Papers of Benjamin Franklin Volume 24 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984).

“Jean Baptiste Nini,” www.benfranklin300.org/frankliniana/people.php?id=34.

“Nini Medallion,” www.fi.edu/learn/sci-tech/nini-medallion/nini-medallion.php?cts=benfranklin.

The Conflagration of the Pennsylvania Masonic Hall in 1819

The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania secured its first building in 1802. Located on Filbert Street in Philadelphia, members dedicated it on St. John’s Day (December 27) in 1802. However, membership in Freemasonry grew at such a rate over the succeeding years that the building soon was too small.  By 1807, the search was on for new quarters. Later that year, the Grand Lodge purchased a vacant lot on Chestnut Street and began building according to a plan that architect William Strickland (1787-1854) submitted to their design competition. The new Masonic Hall was completed in 1809.

Unfortunately, the Grand Lodge would experience a relatively short tenure in this building. On March 9, 1819, a chimney fire spread rapidly, consuming the building. An engraving from the National Heritage Museum's collection, entitled The Conflagration of the Masonic Hall, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and created by John Lewis Krimmel (1786-1821) and John Hill (1770-1850), depicts the scene. The Grand Lodge history explains that “so great was the interest taken by the general public in this great calamity which overtook the Brethren,” that a painting was done “for the purpose of having an engraving made of the conflagration.”

According to the Franklin Gazette, the fire could be seen from New Castle, Delaware, thirty-two miles away. Washington Lodge No. 59 was meeting in the building at the time, but all the men in attendance were able to get out without any deaths or injuries. The print provides an accurate depiction of the fire companies.  It also shows the Secretary of Washington Lodge No. 59 carrying some of the Lodge’s property to safety – its Bible and the key to the hall.

The Conflagration of the Masonic Hall, Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 1819, John Hill, engraver, S. Kennedy and S.S. West, publishers, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, National Heritage Museum collection, Special Acquisitions Fund, 79.42.2. Photograph by David Bohl.