As mentioned in my previous post, the ritual book of Bromwell's rite of Free and Accepted Architects was held in the Grand Lodge of Colorado Museum at 1614 Welton Street, Denver, Colorado until 1971 when the Grand Lodge moved to Colorado Springs. However, it is uncertain if everything was actually moved to Colorado Springs, or if some items remained in Denver. Along with the ritual book(s), it is also uncertain where the jewels and paraphernalia of the rite are now.
For those who are not familiar with Masonic terminology, by "Jewel" Masons mean the symbolic emblems of an officer. The term comes from the fact that the Three Precious Jewels of an Entered Apprentice (the Square, Level, and Plumb) are worn on the collars of the three principal officers of a lodge. So not only are they seen a precious emblems, valuable like jewels, but also they can be viewed as jewelry worn by officers.
In the minutes of King David's Grand Lodge, there are descriptions of what these jewels looked like, and they are descriptive enough that we can reconstruct them with a fair degree of certainty. There are two descriptions given, the first is before the creation of the Royal Architect Degree, and were adopted three years after the Grand Lodge was organized. These jewels were adopted at a special meeting of King David's Lodge No. 1 (not the Grand Lodge) on August 8, 1865 with the following descriptions:
"At a meeting of K. D. No. 1 Comp. Bromwell as member of committee had, decided upon the following as officer Jewels, as such they were adopted; M. A. Triple triangle with triple tau or architects square suspended in the center. S. A. a double triangle or seal of King David with level suspended in the center. J. A. Triangle with plumb suspended in the center. S. O. a Pentalpha or seal of Solomon formed of the extended compass with sun suspended in the center. J. O. Double triangle or seal of King David formed with the extended compasses with crescent moon suspended in the center. Jewels of Secretary, Treasurer and Tiler same as Master's Lodge."
It is a bit uncertain what is intended by "suspended." He describes the the sun and moon of the Senior and Junior Overseer's Jewels as being suspended, similar to the Senior and Junior Deacons of the Blue Lodge, but typically (at least in all examples I have ever seen) the sun and the moon are not "suspended," but rather superimposed upon or fixed within the extended compasses. They do not swing or dangle freely. However, Bromwell was a lawyer, so we might presume he is very deliberate in the words he is choosing, and may very well intend that they literally dangle or swing within the triangles. One issue with this presumption is that the area within the geometric figures are not equal. The Senior Overseer's pentagram has a small area in the center, whereas the Junior Overseer's double triangle has a much greater area. So the scale of these items is going to differ, or they will be out of proportion with their respective geometric figure in comparison with each other. My best reconstruction of what these Jewels looked like are as follows:
On April 7, 1874 the following resolution was adopted concerning the new Jewels of the Grand Lodge officers, since the Royal Architect Degree had been adopted, and therefore changes were being made across the organization:
"Be it resolved by this Grand Lodge of S. & M.E.A. that the Jewels of all the officers in subordinate lodges, and in this Grand Lodge be swung in triple triangles, and that the collar be sky blue, circular in form, and ornamented by silver signs of the Zodiac on stars."
Here we have specific language that states that the emblems are "swung" inside of the triple triangles, though Bromwell does not state what the emblems are that are swinging inside the triple triangle. Presumably the are the same emblems as before. The various arrangements of triangles and geometrical shapes are abandoned in favor of only the triple triangle, which is the Signet of Enoch in Bromwell's rite. Obviously Bromwell is endeavoring to create some standardization or uniformity in his rite. The previous design of the Jewels is not exactly well thought out, nor uniform in any meaningful manner. The Treasurer, Secretary, and Tiler are afterthoughts. The Senior Overseer has a pentagram, whereas the others make use of a varying number of triangles. The Master, Senior, and Junior Architects make sense, as the number of triangles decrease from three to two to one. But why the Junior Overseer has a double triangle is odd. I suppose the Seal of Solomon and Seal of David make them a nice pair, but aesthetically is peculiar and appear inconsistent. The follow are reconstructions of what the revised Jewels may have looked like:
A number of other offices had been created with the adoption of the Royal Architect Degree, (e.g. Master Overseer, Master, Senior, and Junior Deacons, Master of Ceremonies, et al). However, their Jewels are never described, if they ever had Jewels at all.
Bromwell's rite was not a well-functioning organization. In fact, it was an utter disaster. I have an essay on just how dysfunctional the rite was that is anticipated to be published in Philalethes late this year. The possibility that these additional offices never had Jewels designed for them would not surprise me in the least. If there were designs created for these other offices, no record survives of what they looked like; another indication of how disorganized the rite was.
Unless by some strange miracle that the paraphernalia was not in Denver during the 1984 fire at the Welton Street Masonic Building, and their location is discovered in Colorado Springs, then these reconstructions may be the closest we will have to what the Jewels of Bromwell's rite look like.
The only other regalia that is given a description is the apron. Masons love their aprons, and each Masonic order has its own apron designs, and each Masonic jurisdiction has its own variations on those designs. There are no records of what the apron looked like in any of the records of the Grand Lodge, but with the publication of the ritual of the rite in Collectanea 4.2 by the Grand College of Rites, a brief description of the apron is given. Based on the language given in Collectanea, the description is given based on an actual surviving apron.
The apron is described in Collectanea as: "there is in existence an apron which was of lamb skin without the fleece having been removed. Therefore, it is possible that at some it may have been actually 'worked.'" It looks like from this concise description that it was important to Bromwell to have a real lambskin apron, and apparently he liked a furry, fluffy apron. It would also appear that those who wrote the introduction to Collectanea 4.2 believed that the individual brothers would "work" or defleece and tan their own aprons. If such is not the case, then I have no idea what they mean by "worked."
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