Masonic Freemasonry (6 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. NAVAL LODGE No. 87. Free and Associated Masons 1913 ROSTER of Officers and Members. Rare Secret Society MASONIC NAVAL LODGE Vallejo Mare Island Navy Shipyard California. Booklet, printed purple wrappers, staple bound, 4.5" x 2.75", 14 pages, printed in purple/blue ink. NEAR FINE CONDITION: This scarce 1913 Masonic Roster is tight, bright, clean and unmarked. Naval Lodge No. 87 was established in Vallejo, opposite the Navy Yard at Mare Island. It is the oldest Lodge in Vallejo, organized in 1855. Many of the members were enlisted men, workers and officers at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Mare Island was founded by famous Mason and Civil War Commander David G. Farragut.…

Octavo, 16 pages. In original cream wraps, tied with blue ribbon, and with the insignia of the Lodge printed on the front. Good, if a little aged. Creased where folded in half. With the signatures of seven of the Lodge's members in pencil on front wrap (Bob Bradley, P. H. Crozier, Herbert L. Hawkes and others). From the collection of the pamphlet's printer Robert W. Bradley, who is listed among the Lodge's Officers as 'Organist', and who signs 'Bob Bradley'.…

2pp., 4to. Printed in small type, with manuscript additions on both sides of the first leaf; addressed on the recto of the second leaf, with broken red wax seal: 'P. P. 9d | Mr Baldwin | Copper plate printer & | Birmingham | Sheffield | Oct 8th.' Great St Helens was a centre for firms concerned with bankruptcy and liquidation, and this interesting document offers banking services for 'needy Manufacturers and Tradesmen', with a use of Masonic imagery which is designed to reassure. The head of the letter is decorated with a vignette depicting an all-seeing eye overlooking a globe on which blind Justice is perched, with the motto: 'NUNQUAM DORMIO'; beneath this is the heading '(Important) Accommodation' in gothic letters, flanked by compasses and a sun-face. The printed document begins: 'Merchants, Manufacturers, Farmers, Graziers, Tradesmen, and Persons of respectability, in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, or in any Foreign Part, may have good London Accepted Bills of Exchange, procured for them, regularly Drawn, Accepted, and Endorsed, and if necessary specially Endorsed to them, at any dates, and in any Amounts their Circumstances may require, or they may be allowed to Draw themselves on respectable and responsible Houses in the City of London, [.]'. At the end of this section the 'Charges' are given in manuscript, followed by a note stating that the firm are 'Purchasers of any kind of Property (for Ready Money) adapted for Sale in London, if the Prices suit us, [.]'. At the foot of the page is printed a circular letter in type, signed in manuscript 'Thos. Gibbons & Co', with the date and address also added in manuscript. This states: 'The nature of our Business is such, as to enable us to know many needy Manufacturers and Tradesmen, who are obliged to sell at times for Ready Money at a low Rate, therefore can procure you Goods from 20 to 30 per cent. cheaper than you can purchase them in the regular way. We can also find a Person that will at any time make large Advances in Cash, upon any description of Saleable Property, lodged as a Collateral Security, in any Public Warehouse or Packers in London, [.]'. Four-line manuscript addition at foot of page. The second page begins with a printed list of 'a lot of Goods we have had put into our hands, for sale by commission', with prices in manuscript, including all manner of items, from '3500 black or white called Royal Brunswick Beaver, they are of the most fashionable shape, and for durability, equal to any Hat ever made, will never change their color or wear white at the edges', to '12 new and elegant made London [S]tanhope Chaises', and also including cheese, wine and jewellery. At the foot of the page is an eight-line letter to 'Mr. Baldwin', beginning 'If we have not been wrongly informed you have had the misfortune to dishonour some Bill or Bills which we hope is owing to some temporary disappointment', and ending 'you may depend upon our Honor Secrecy & punctuality'. Image on application.…

Dimensions of paper roughly twelve inches by ten; dimensions of print roughly nine and a half inches by seven and a half. A good clear impression, on aged, creased paper, of a striking illustration showing a portly and sleek Asperne, beautifully turned out in Freemason's robes and paraphernalia, holding a leather-bound book, and seated in an ornately carved wooden chair with the Freemasons' eye in a triangle at its head. Captioned 'Mr James Asperne | BOOKSELLER, CORNHILL, | Past Master of the FOUNDATION LODGE NO. 96 And St. Peter's No. 249 | P.S.D. of the LODGE of Antiquity No. 1 And Grand Steward for 1814'. See Image. …

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Minimal damage has been caused to the second leaf (affecting two or three unimportant words of text) by the breaking of the red wax seal. Addressed by Guthrie 'To Charles Sharpe of Hoddam Esqr [Hoddam Castle] | Provenance Grand Master for Dumfries Shire'. Small circular red ink postmark. Docketed. Guthrie's letter, in a secretarial hand but signed and with an initialed postscript by him, covers the two centre pages. He writes that 'a great proportion' of the lodges are in arrears, 'some of them 20 years and upwards'. 'The funds of the Grand Lodge are at present very much Exhausted by the liberal supplies they have been induced to afford to Indigent Brethren for these three years past'. He also mentions the laying of 'the foundation Stone of the new Jail at Dumfries'. He cites the minutes in support of a demand that Sharpe 'enforce a strict compliance'. The recto of the first sheet carries a list of fifteen numbered lodges, headed 'Dumfries Shire | Charles Sharpe Esqr P. G. M.', giving the dates of 'last pay[men]t.' and 'last Certificate'. At the foot of the page is quotation of a six-line resolution by the Grand Lodge 'of 2d May last' regarding arrears.…

2pp., folio. On two leaves of yellow paper, with 'PATENT' lion and unicorn watermark. Text enclosed within faint blue vertical lines. Good, on lightly aged and worn paper. No record found of the publication of this item, the first page of which is headed 'Opening: -', with the last section ending two thirds down the page, suggesting that it is complete. A rhymed poem of 36 lines: the first section consisting of 10 lines, the second of 16 lines, and the third of 10 lines. The 'Opening' reads: 'Hail, Thou from whom all light is shed, | Within whose beams we live and move, | Who guardest all the quick & dead, | And art the very source of love. | Hear us who meet in brotherhood | And dimly shape our lives, to be | A part of that which, pure and good, | Streams ever in broad floods from thee.' The item is from an American source, and the handwriting suggests America in the latter part of the nineteenth century, but there is no evidence of the source or date.…