The Worcester Masonic Museum is famed throughout the masonic world for its outstanding collection of the medals and jewels belonging to the Craft and beyond. In August 1884, George Taylor, an enthusiastic Freemason and numismatist of Kidderminster, sold his collection at cost to the Museum, following an exhibition at the Guildhall in Worcester. This was to become the nucleus of the Museum collection. Just 7 years later in 1891, together with the renowned scholar W. J. Hughan they published a catalogue of books, manuscripts, articles, engravings, aprons, and other curios relating to freemasonry: and now forming the Worcestershire Masonic Library and Museum which remains an important source of reference to this day.
     The Museum collection has since been growing steadily, the numismatic collection in particular enhanced by the acquisition in the 1920s of the already internationally renowned Shackles Collection of European and other Masonic medals.
     Once more in their wisdom the Province invited The Rev. H. Poole to compile A Catalogue of the Masonic Medals in the Museum of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Worcestershire published in 1939. These two volumes established the Museum numismatic collection as one of worldwide importance.
     Since the mid-eighteenth century medals and jewels of the Craft have been issued regularly and at the discretion of individual Brethren. It was not until the Union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813 that Jewel design was standardised. Thus the variety and beauty of earlier jewels has no limits. Initially jewels were engraved by hand and this gradually led to the more artistic and delicate procedure of piercing the jewel, namely carefully cutting out the background to emblems and symbols, leaving the depicted object outstanding. These early jewels of the end of the eighteenth and the start of the nineteenth centuries normally have very limited information on them.
     Although normally made of silver, not all have hallmarks and their identification is sometimes impossible. They consist of either collar jewels, evidenced by the larger size and top loop to accommodate a collar, they may be personal lodge jewels or Past Master’s jewels. The orders beyond the Craft, the Royal Arch in particular, are also well represented by pierced jewels.
     The quality of the craftsmanship involved becomes most evident in the more intricate and complex designs.
     Such an example is the pear shaped pierced collar jewel on the top rim of which are engraved the words from Genesis, Sit Lux et Lux Fuit (Let there be Light and there was Light). Two pillars flank the reversed square and compass resting on what appears to be an open volume of the sacred law, below which more emblems, including a Tyler’s sword are apparent. At the top the sun and the moon are placed on either side and other Masonic emblems are dispersed throughout.

Past Master’s Jewel

A similar almost square pierced jewel indicates, by its design, that it is a Past Master’s jewel, with the level and plumb-rule on either side of the centrally placed square and compass spanning the whole jewel from the top to both lower extremes. The radiating sun and chequered floor are above the circular base engraved with numerals. The two columns form the extreme borders.
     In a few instances a date is engraved on the edge of the jewel. The Worcester collection includes two medals of identical design, of which one example is a solid piece, the other has been pierced, demonstrating how the beauty of the piece is enhanced by this technique. The masonic date at the top shows the jewel to be dated 1766. It has a rounded frame within which various masonic implements almost protrude from a central level sitting on two Corinthian columns. The scroll to the left bears the figure of the Theorem of Pythagoras to indicate this to be a Past Master’s Jewel. In addition to the date the points of the compass are shown by the letters E S W and N with East, as expected, at the top. Along the lower edge the Latin text Sit Lux et Lux Fuit.
     Other implements are added making the jewel an attractive piece by the simplicity of the design.

Companions of the Royal Arch

We often encounter today modern examples of pierced jewellery worn by Companions of the Royal Arch when attending Craft meetings. Earlier examples were indeed much prettier and more carefully executed. An easily recognisable Royal Arch design, now clearly identifiable by the owner’s name J. Eden engraved on the jewel, is particularly attractive. It has a lower extension in the shape of curtains with the triple Tau pierced at the very base. The usual text is engraved along the border and the interlacing triangles, in the very centre of which is the letter ‘G’ placed prominently.

Mark Master Masons

An exceedingly rare jewel of an order beyond the Craft, that of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, is the lozenge-shaped pierced jewel with a central cross designed by Jeweller Thomas Harper - Joint then Deputy Grand Secretary of the Antients Grand Lodge,1792-1800 - identified by very similar examples with some variations in the Museum of Freemasonry in London. The shape is not unusual for early jewels of this order. The large size, however, and the piercing of the individual letters surrounding the central circle make it an unusual item. The letters H T W S K O I are particular to the Mark degree and revealed to the candidate at his advancement into the order.

The Museum at The Masonic Hall, Rainbow Hill, Worcester, WR3 8LY is open every Tuesday and Thursday from 10.00 am until noon, or by appointment. Telephone John Hart at 01684 574750. www.worcestershiremasoniclibrary

John Hart has been in charge of the Worcester Masonic Museum and Library since 1979. He was previously the Senior Classics Master at Malvern College and is the author of numerous articles and reviews in specialist classical journals. His Herodotus and Greek History went into a second edition in 1993. He was initiated into Apollo University Lodge, No. 357, in Oxford, 1956.