Wednesday, January 25, 2023

‘Bonhams auctions antique Masonic punchbowl’

    
Bonhams

Bonhams, the London-based auction house founded in 1793, placed under the gavel yesterday one of those beautiful Chinese-made punchbowls you see in many Masonic museums.

Dating to the Qianlong period (c. 1780), the porcelain piece sold for $12,750 at the dealer’s New York location on Madison Avenue.

Bonhams

It depicts the checkered pavement, pillars, G, sun & moon and Pleiades, and the S&C of the Second Degree. And you’ll see a lewis, and a few things that I thought didn’t exist in our degrees until the Thomas Smith Webb era. My brain is going soft. I’ll have to hit the books and look into it.

Bonhams

Anyway, my bid of $357, plus a Shriner belt buckle, didn’t prevail.
     

No comments: