Description
An attractive and unusual silver gilt Masonic jewel at the centre of which is a sun face within a triangle over a pair of compasses, set within an open double triangle encircled by a broad band. At the top of the jewel is a silver gilt hanger in the form of narrow ribbon loops and at the base is another silver gilt ribbon looped to enclose the encircled compound character ‘T’ upon ‘H’ or tripleTau. The flat surfaces of the star, band and basal ribbon are engraved with the ‘all-seeing eye’ symbol and words in Latin, Greek and English with Masonic associations; one wing of the basal ribbon bears the Lodge number 654. The top bar of one triangle shows the name of the owner “JOHN SENIOR”. On the lower part of the broad band is the year date in two forms: A.L. (Anno Lucis) 5814 and A.D. (Anno Domini) 1810[1]. There are two small cracks in the metal, one on the outer band and one nearby where the two triangles intersect.
[1]Awidely accepted method of Anno Lucis calculation added exactly 4000 years to the Gregorian date but the 4004 years calculated by Bishop Ussher was preferred by traditionalist and Scottish lodges.
Maker’s Marks:
The item is not hallmarked but the reverse of the basal ribbon is engraved: “T. Harper Fleet Street Fecit” indicating that it claims to have been made by Thomas Harper, the most eminent and prolific masonic jeweller in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. However, the smaller size, lighter gauge and manner in which the engraving is done all serve to indicate an alternative provincial source for this jewel, the provincial maker copying as closely as he could an existing jewel including the ‘signature’ marks of Thomas Harper.
Dimensions & Weight:
Height: 7 cm/ 2 ¾ ins Width 4.8 cm / 2 ins Weight: 12 gms./ 0.4 ozT.
Masonic Jewels
Masonic jewels can be classified[1]in several different ways. Leaving aside commemorative or specially granted jewels, a fundamental distinction is between Lodge jewels, which belong to the Lodges concerned, and personal jewels, the property of individual members. The other main distinction is between collar jewels, worn suspended from a collar, and breast jewels, worn in the manner of a medal. Jewels may also be classified by the method of manufacture as pierced, cast or plate. The first of these processes, piercing, accords well with the presentation of masonic symbols.
This item is a breast jewel in Thomas Harper’s typical Royal Arch pattern, the Royal Arch attribution being indicated by the double triangle and the compound character ‘T’ upon ‘H’, representing either three Greek letters Tau, joined at the base, or the Latin letters TH signifying Templum Hierosolym, the Temple of Jerusalem.
John Senior
There is a record of a ‘John Senior’ being enrolled in Atholl Lodge in Newcastle on 7thJune 1810. This lodge appears to have had a markedly Scottish membership.
[1]Timothy Kent, Thomas Harper, Masonic jeweller and the jewels of his period, in Silver Studies, the Journal of the Silver Society, No. 19, 2005, p. 14.
