‘Weird Fact Wednesday: Solomon and the iron worker’

     

Iron Worker and King Solomon by Christian Schussele, oil on canvas, 1863. On display at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, near the Masonic Temple.

The subject of this edition of Weird Fact Wednesday isn’t genuinely weird, but there is a good story about it.

There is an artwork titled Iron Worker and King Solomon that you probably are familiar with. It originated as a painting by Christian Schussele of Philadelphia, who created it in 1863 for one Joseph Harrison, a renowned builder of railroads. (Schussele died in New Jersey in 1879.)

The 1996 edition of Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia says this painting is owned by Joseph’s great grandson, John P.S. Harrison, who was raised a Master Mason at Holland Lodge 8 in New York City on November 26, 1935. Without checking with the lodge’s secretary, I’ll assume Bro. Harrison is deceased.

But, in 1889, says Coil’s, “John Sartain, America’s most famous etcher, made a 25 by 36 inch etching of the picture for the Harrison family,” and “he did another 18 by 25 inches for William M. Bradley & Co. of Philadelphia, who sold prints for a number of years.” The Philadelphia Print Shop Ltd., which offers one today for $600, puts the date at 1876 and says:


“Harrison’s fortune was made in steel manufacturing, so the [painting’s backstory] had a special significance to him. The symbol of the iron worker was also an important one for the industrial northern states, whose heavy manufacturing capability allowed the North to win the Civil War and preserve the Union. This striking print is one of the best examples of John Sartain’s mezzotinting, and it is a classic American image.”


Later, the plate was sold to Macoy Masonic Supply Co. in Virginia, says Coil’s, “who continue to sell a great many prints.” I think this is how many of us today know the image. It also had been published, with a lighthearted modification, in the quarterly publication of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 for years. The Library of Congress makes a photo of the print available here.

So, what is the story conveyed by the painting?

Joseph Harrison, the steel and railroad magnate, compiled a book in 1868 for private circulation titled The Iron Worker and King Solomon. The copy the author personally inscribed and gave as a gift to the artist Schussele can be viewed in Google Books via the Pennsylvania State University library system, which itself received the book from the Class of 1932.

Harrison writes of a “Rabbinic legend” that tells the story of a blacksmith who crashes the celebration party thrown after the completion of King Solomon’s Temple. I have to admit I do not know the origins of this legend—maybe the Talmud—but this is the story on which the painting is based:


And it came to pass when Solomon, the son of David, had finished the Temple of Jerusalem, that he called unto him the chief architects, the head artificers, and cunning men working in silver and gold, and in wood, and in ivory and stone, — yea, all who aided in working on the Temple of the Lord.

And he said to them, “Sit ye down at my table, for I have prepared a feast for all my chief workers and artificers. Stretch forth your hands, therefore, and eat and drink and be merry. Is not the laborer worthy of his hire? Is not the skillful artificer deserving of honor? Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn.”

And when Solomon and the chief workmen were seated, and the fatness of the land and the oil thereof were upon the table, there came one who knocked loudly upon the door, and forced himself even into the festal chamber. Then Solomon the King was wroth, and said, “What manner of man art thou?”

And the man answered and said, “When men wish to honor me, they call me Son of the Forge, but when they desire to mock me, they call me Blacksmith; and seeing that the toil of working in fire covers me with sweat, the latter name, O King, is not inapt, and in truth I desire no better.”

“But,” said Solomon, “why comest thou thus rudely and unbidden to the feast, where none save the chief workmen of the Temple are invited?”

And the man replied, “Please ye, I came rudely because the servant obliged me to force my way; but I came not unbidden. Was it not proclaimed that the chief workmen of the Temple are invited to dine with the King of Israel?”

Then he who carved the cherubim said, “This fellow is no sculptor.”

And he who inlaid the roof with pure gold said, “Neither is he a worker in fine metals.”

And he who raised the walls said, “He is not a cutter of stone.”

And he who made the roof cried out, “He is not cunning in cedar wood, neither knoweth he the mystery of uniting strange pieces of timber together.”

Then said Solomon, “What hast thou to say, Son of the Forge? Why should I not order thee to be plucked by the beard, scourged with a scourge, and stoned to death with stones?”

When the Son of the Forge heard this, he was in no sort dismayed, but advancing to the table, snatched up and swallowed a cup of wine, and said, “O King, live forever! The chief men of the workers in wood and gold and stone have said that I am not of them, and they have said truly. I am their superior. Before they lived, I was created. I am their master, and they are all my servants.”

And he turned himself round and said to the chief of the carvers in stone, “Who made the tools with which you carve?”

And he answered, “The Blacksmith.”

And he said to the chief of the workers in wood, “Who made the tools with which you hewed the trees of Lebanon, and formed them into pillars and roof for the Temple?”

And he answered, “The Blacksmith.”

Then he said to the artificer in gold and ivory, “Who makes your instruments by which you work beautiful things for my Lord, the King?”

And he answered, “The Blacksmith.”

“Enough, enough, my good fellow”, said Solomon. “Thou hast proved that I invited thee, and that thou art all men’s father in art. Go wash the sweat of the forge from thy face, and come and sit at my right hand. The chiefs of my workmen are but men. Thou art more.”


And so the painting depicts the iron worker seated at the right of the king’s throne, the place of honor.

Anyway, Coil’s reports that Holland Lodge’s Harrison loaned the painting to the Union Club of the City of New York and that it is on display there. Last October, I asked the librarian there about it, but she says the club has no record of it. Turns out that Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts acquired it, I think in 1990, thanks to money donated by an anonymous benefactor. We can see it exhibited there.