plate

Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience.

Object Type
Museum number: 1887,0614.1
Description: Plate, tin-glazed earthenware, painted in blue with the arms of the Premier Grand Lodge , or 'Moderns' (i.e.Freemasons), its emblems and the motto 'Amor Honor et Justitia'.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 1760 (circa)
Production place: Factory in: Liverpool
Materials
Ware
Technique
Dimensions: Diameter: 25.40 centimetres; Diameter: 9.90 inches
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: There is another example in the Troy D. Chappell collection, USA, acquired without provenance on the London art market, 1976. This is not the one published by Mundy in 1928 (information from owner, July 2010).. One sold by Malcolm Mactaggart, Sotheby's, 24 March 1959, lot 83.; The decoration is a variation of the Freemasons' arms: normally the coat of arms is central. Here it appears below the principal cartouche which contains working tools of craft masonry, a chequered pavement, candlesticks of the master and warden, and the volume of the sacred law. The two jewels suspended from the top of the cartouche represent the master. Surmounting the cartouche is a master holding a compass and next to him are his emblem and a beehive representing industry. He is flanked by the sun and moon which represent freemasonry universal and are the emblems of the senior and junior wardens of the lodge who stand on either side of the cartouche with their jewels of office: the level, and the plomb. Suspended beneath the wardens are the badges of the treasurer (crossed keys) and secretary (crossed quills). Around the upper part of the cartouche are columns representing the orders of architecture interspersed with foliage. Below the cartouche is the coat of arms of the Premier or 'Moderns' Grand Lodge, which imitates the arms of the stonemasons' guild of the City of London, surmounted by 'G' in a triangle within a glory representing Geometry and also the 'Great Architect of the Universe'. Alongside the arms is the motto in Latin for 'Love, honour and justice'. Description courtesy of Mark Dennis of The Library and Museum of Freemasonry
Bibliographic references: Hobson 1903 / Catalogue of the collection of English Pottery in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquites and Ethnography of the British Museum (E125); Dawson 2010 / English and Irish Delftware 1570-1840 (pp. 142-3, no. 56)
Location: Not on display
Condition: Two rim chips - August 2006.
Subjects: heraldry; freemasonry
Associated names
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1887
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: 1887,0614.1
Conservation

Free entry

Opening hours