Antiques: Nobody does regalia like the Masons
Taken as a whole, few groups are as interesting as fraternal organizations.
Although somewhat out of fashion today, fraternal orders have historically played outsized roles in communities across America and elsewhere. At the dawn of the 20th century, there were some 600 such groups in America alone with 5.5 million members. They provided a degree of community, relief and insurance to their membership in a manner that was simply unavailable through other channels. Among the largest and best known were the Masons, and their ritual and regalia were legendary. Let's explore.
Among the mysteries that shroud Masonry is their exact beginnings. Legend has it that a group of medieval British stone masons formed something of a guild, and the institution grew from there. In England, the first written evidence of Masonic ritual appears to be around 1650 when Elias Ashmole recorded his initiation ceremony. More accounts began to appear, and then in 1717 the first Grand Lodge was formed with Anthony Sayer elected as its Grand Master.
Lodges were the clubhouses in which Masons could conduct their meetings, and a hierarchy of local, regional and national lodges was slowly established. Grand Lodges in Ireland and Scotland were founded a few years later, and a codified rules of Masonry was published in 1723. New lodges formed and within a century's time there were more than 640 active orders in Great Britain and beyond.
Across the pond in the USA, the lodge system was also growing rapidly. Their range was enormous, with many focusing on charitable work and a few (such as the Ku Klux Klan) on more sinister goals. By the year 1900, one American in every 15 was a member of a lodge.
References to ancient characters and events peppered their ceremonies, and while somewhat dry when described in absentia they could be powerful motivators to help others and achieve good works. Among other things, lodges provided greatly needed financial assistance to widows and orphans and often helped pay burial expenses for their members.
Over the years, there have countless members of government, business, and the arts and sciences who have joined Masonic orders. In England, they include King George VI, the recently deceased Prince Philip, Winston Churchill, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the USA, famous freemasons include George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Mark Twain, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. While well off historic highs, there are still more than two million Americans today affiliated with masonic orders.
Although the regalia associated with masonic ceremonies are often passed down the family tree, antique galleries like ours occasionally come across some fascinating artifacts. Most such wear is beautifully crafted from leather and silk, the aprons, robes and sashes reflecting a quality of craftsmanship all but lost today. Various symbols and initials often ornament these items, opaque to the non-initiate but conveying a special meaning to those in the know.
Collecting vintage fraternal regalia is increasing in popularity, sometimes in tribute to past family masons, but often simply as a diverse and little-understood category. And who knows — perhaps some future initiation ceremony will include even you.
Mike Rivkin and his wife, Linda, are longtime residents of Rancho Mirage. For many years, he was an award-winning catalogue publisher and has authored seven books, along with countless articles. Now, he's the owner of Antique Galleries of Palm Springs. His antiques column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Want to send Mike a question about antiques? Drop him a line at info@silverfishpress.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Antiques: Nobody does regalia like the Masons
