Royal gifts

from Freemasonry Today - Winter 2022 - Issue 60

Tried and trusted

In reviewing archive material at the Museum of Freemasonry for the 2022 Prestonian Lecture, ‘The Royal Family and Freemasonry’, a copy of a letter dated 21 March 1950 came to light from Sydney White, UGLE Grand Secretary, to HM King George VI, as follows:

I have to inform Your Majesty that the Grand Master has handed me the Glass Goblet and Tumbler which Your Majesty has graciously presented to Grand Lodge on permanent loan. They are at once being placed in one of the cases in the Museum which is visited by a constantly increasing number of people.

The Museum’s collection contains items given or loaned by the Royal Family over a period of almost two centuries, including the spectacular Sussex Plate candelabrum on display in the South Gallery. However, the two pieces referred to in the letter, as well as some porcelain given by King George V and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, are less well known.

The story of this glass began on 26 April 1948, the occasion of the silver wedding of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. One of the gifts was a tumbler, inset into the base of which were three loose dice. Known as a gaming tumbler, this example probably dates to the second half of the 19th century and is decorated with emblems,

BY ROYAL BEQUEST

While researching his 2022 Prestonian Lecture, John Hawkins, together with Collections Manager Emma Roberts, discovered a selection of precious Royal gifts to the Museum of Freemasonry

STILL LIFE IMAGES PATRICK BALLS

some of which are obviously Masonic and others less so. The King asked his private secretary, Michael Adeane, to seek further information from Heron Lepper, the Librarian and Curator at Great Queen Street, via the Grand Secretary.

Heron Lepper’s response to the Grand Secretary was not particularly enthusiastic, noting that the Museum had several similar specimens, although this was of larger size than normal, that it was “fairly modern”, probably of Bohemian origin and of rather rough workmanship, with several flaws. White’s reply to Adeane has not survived, but may have been slightly more enthusiastic. Heron Lepper’s description of the symbols was attached to his response.

Presumably the King must have been satisfied with the reply, and there the matter was left for the time being. A year or so later, however, Adeane made another enquiry on behalf of the King. This arose in a roundabout way.

In 1948, a publication titled Antiques Review had been launched. The leading article in the first issue was ‘Flint-glass in the collection of His Majesty the King’ by G Bernard Hughes. He had been permitted to inspect the King’s private collection of old English table glass at Buckingham Palace and to take several photographs that were reproduced in the article. One item was described as follows:

The capacious Masonic rummer has a thinly blown bowl, its field elaborately engraved with a long series of Masonic emblems. The short stem with a round knop and a strengthening collar below the bowl is typical of three-piece rummers made after 1790.

The following year, Kenneth Ulyett wrote an article on ‘Masonic Glass’ in The Freemasons’ Magazine and Rectangular Review. He reproduced the photograph of the goblet that had appeared in the article by Hughes, noting that it had been described by Hughes and adding:

The fine workmanship, artistic engraving and artistic conception of the whole goblet makes fair comparison with the ewer and four goblets deposited in the Grand Lodge Museum by the Royal Arch Chapter of St James, attached to the Lodge of Antiquity.

One of the most historically interesting and artistically satisfying engraved goblets known to the Masonic world. This goblet, of the Georgian period, is in the collection of HM the King. The choice of symbols is unusual for a glass of this period, and the proportions of the geometric figures blend well with the general lines of the goblet. The simple foot is typical of goblets of the period.

Whether the workmanship is really up to the same standard as the Chapter of St James pieces

Left: King George V and Queen Mary tour Freemasons’ Hall. Below: Qianlong porcelain punch bowl, glass rummer, 1790-1820

is arguable, but the author was certainly impressed. This article gave rise to another letter, on 7 July 1949, from Adeane to Sydney White:

You may have noticed a picture of a glass Masonic Goblet, which belongs to The King, on page 13 of The Freemasons’ Magazine, No 654, Vol 3.

His Majesty did not know that he possessed this interesting piece of glass, but it has now come to light. We have absolutely no information about it, except that it has got a piece of paper stuck to it, on which is typed ‘English 1820’. The King is much interested in this Goblet, and is anxious to find out something of its history.

Would it be possible for you, with your usual kindness, to arrange for someone at Grand Lodge to have a look at it, and give their opinion? I could easily have it sent down to you or bring it myself.

Once again Heron Lepper was asked to provide an opinion and his response included a description of the symbols. Despite being an enthusiastic collector of glass, the King must subsequently have felt that the best place for both pieces was the Museum and there they remain to this day.

The King died in February 1952 and, later that year, while still in mourning, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother visited Freemasons’ Hall for a tour hosted by the Earl of Scarbrough, Grand Master. She wrote to thank the Grand Master and gave the Museum another piece from the King’s private collection as a permanent memorial to him, this time a Chinese porcelain punch bowl.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this piece, probably dating from the late 18th century, has seen better days. Its decoration is heraldic rather than Masonic, with the Royal Arms for Scotland on the front and the jewel of the Knights of the Thistle on the back. The Order of the Thistle is a chivalric order associated with Scotland, the current version having been founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland (James II of England), who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order.

This was not the first gift of porcelain to the Museum by the Royal Family. In 1934, not long after Freemasons’ Hall was opened, a tour hosted by the Duke of Connaught, then Grand Master, was made by King George V and Queen Mary. Following their visit, along with their thanks, the King sent as a gift two punch bowls of Qianlong export porcelain of c.1780. The smaller has some damage, but the larger one is in very good condition, and both have similar decoration, much of it resembling that on the glass goblet described above. There are also some additional emblems and both feature superimposed working tools, an idea later adopted by Reynolds Stone in his winning design for King George VI’s peace stamp (see FMT Spring 2022 issue).

These five pieces are not the largest or most splendid in the Museum’s collection, but their impeccable provenance makes them among the most treasured. WANTED! £100 REWARD!

In 1869 and 1870, Sigismund Rosenthal created two paintings showing, respectively, the reception of HRH Prince of Wales as Past Grand Master of the Craft and at a Grand Conclave of Knights Templar. Autotype prints of these paintings were advertised regularly by George Kenning in The Freemason between 1870 and 1873. The original of the former hangs in Freemasons’ Hall, and prints, sometimes coloured, are quite commonly encountered. The whereabouts of the original of the latter is unknown and various print collections, including the Museum of Freemasonry, the Victoria & Albert and British Museums, and the Royal Collection Trust do not list copies in their catalogues. If you know where a copy, or the original, can be found, please let us know at FMT and we will donate £100 to a charity of your choice.