Page 304 - Bonhams Catalog Cohen and Cohen Jan 24, 2023 New York

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A LARGE AND RARE FAMILLE ROSE ‘MASONIC’ PUNCHBOWL Masonic emblems on Chinese export porcelain are rare. This bowl is
Qianlong period, circa 1780 a fine example of the type. The origins of freemasonry are uncertain,
This handsome large bowl enameled on the exterior and interior but supposedly going back to the builders of Solomon’s temple. There
in ‘rose’ enamels, iron-red and gilt with Masonic and architectural were lodges or associations of stonemasons in medieval times and
symbols including calipers, a set-square flanked by beehives, various in the seventeenth century there were many guilds that operated box
carpenters’ tools, pillars (representing the Temple of Solomon’s pillars), clubs where members contributed to help those who fell on hard times
and the monogram ‘G’ (for God or geometry) surmounted by a sheaf – and such clubs often had simple initiation ceremonies, passwords
of corn, within images of the sun, the moon, rain clouds, and stars, all and hierarchical membership. These lodges were forming in a time
beneath a thin border band of elegant scrolling loops broken by the of extreme religious turbulence, and it is argued that they were an
motif of two clubs encircled by a snake biting its own tail. attempt to build a better society and, in the custom of the times, used
20 1/2in (52cm) diam complex symbolism and allegory to express their ideas. The series
of designs on this bowl illustrate some of these. Masons were found
$15,000 - 20,000 throughout the large trading companies and the merchant navy, and
especially in the East India Companies. An interesting range of pieces
乾隆時期 約1780年 粉彩描紅描金《共濟會典儀》潘趣酒碗 is known with Masonic designs - almost all would have been special
private orders, and none were made in large numbers. This bowl is
Provenance: exceptionally large - and bowls of this size were mostly made for the
Christies, New York, January 2012/13. The Frelinghuysen Sale. American market.

Published: References: Howard & Ayers, 1978, pp. 323-328, for various Masonic
Cohen & Cohen, Think Pink!, Antwerp, 2013, pp. 78-79, no. 52 items; Schiffer, 1980, pp. 137-142, for American market wares;
Hervouët & Bruneau, 1986, pp. 278-290, for numerous Masonic
出版： porcelains; Howard, 1974, p. 729, a pair of armorial salts inscribed
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Think Pink!》，安特衛普，2013年， ‘Brother Richard Meriton’; Cohen & Cohen, 2007, no. 31, p. 52, for
頁78-79，圖版編號52 a smaller bowl with identical decoration but inscribed on the base
‘Brother Joseph Elliott’; and Arapova, et al, 2003, no. 66, p. 60, a
Masonic bowls were generally ‘special order’ wares because of Masonic punchbowl.
their limited commercial appeal to the general public, probably
commissioned for Masonic lodges or individual members (‘brothers’)
throughout Western Europe and East Coast America.

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