‘Prince Hall pocket watch on PBS’

    

PBS

Maybe you saw this when it first was broadcast in 2009, but an Antiques Roadshow episode recorded in Atlantic City was repeated Monday night, and it includes an appraisal of a beautiful nineteenth century gold watch with a Prince Hall provenance.

PBS

PBS

PBS

The segment runs about three minutes and it’s first in the line-up. Enjoy.

     

‘Lodge to star in PBS history program’

    

East Bay Media Group

Historic Washington Lodge 3 in Rhode Island will star in a forthcoming PBS history program, according to local media.

The Warren Times-Gazette reports today how the lodge, which dates to June 24, 1796, will be featured on Rhode Island PBS’ Treasures Inside the Museum next month. The following is copyright © 2024 East Bay Media Group:

By Ethan Hartley

New England is a historical spelunker’s paradise. It’s a place where a day trip to any random corner of the region can result in stumbling upon some type of rare artifact or another that hearkens back to the earliest days of our colonial past, or perhaps even beyond that.

Warren, certainly, has its fair share of transportive treasures—both in objects carried down through generations held within historic walls, to the actual buildings themselves. And coming soon to a PBS station near you, one particular local location, and one particularly special historic artifact, will have its moment in the spotlight.

Washington Lodge No. 3, located at 39 Baker St. in Warren’s downtown historic district, boasts a title of the second oldest continuously operating Freemasons lodge in the United States, first opening up in June of 1796. The building has undergone renovations and although it is not technically a museum, the board of directors that take care of the building have been consistently seeking to share its vibrant history with anyone interested through a variety of open houses and events throughout the year.

John Miranda, a member of the board and the Junior Deacon at the lodge, said that he reached out to Rhode Island PBS last year to see if they were interested in visiting the lodge while they were taping the fifth season of the New England Emmy-nominated series, Treasures Inside the Museum. The show, produced by a collaboration of Ocean State Video and Weathervane Communications, took him up on the invite and visited Warren on December 28, 2023 to shoot the segment featuring the Washington Lodge.

Miranda said that the building’s history will be explored in the segment, along with some of the interesting Egyptian murals, and historical objects from the Freemasons of generations past.

“We explore traditional museum spaces in season five and the unexpected locations where treasures are kept,” said Betty-Jo Cugini, series co-producer and owner of Weathervane Communications. “We are excited to take viewers behind the scenes as exhibits come to life, from ideas shared around a table to an opening-night exhibit where unique treasures and cultures come together.”

One particular item from the lodge is sure to turn some heads and pique some interest among historical buffs: a water pitcher that was owned by George Washington. Miranda said it was given to the lodge by the family of George Washington’s quartermaster, but you’ll have to tune into the show to get the full story.

The show featuring Warren will air on July 19 at 8:30 p.m., July 20 at 12:30 p.m., and July 21 at 7 p.m. Warren will share a show with The Sailing Museum & National Sailing Hall of Fame in Newport.

“They were very excited to do a story about us,” Miranda said. “It’s exciting just to have the lodge featured on PBS and to let people see what’s in the building, because I’m sure there’s always mystery about what’s going on in a Freemasons lodge. At least we can now give them a little peek behind the curtain.”

Episodes of the show will be available to watch on Rhode Island PBS and on the Rhode Island PBS YouTube channel.

     

‘Ben Franklin gets the Burns treatment’

    

Benjamin Franklin, revered Freemason, Founding Father, inventor, natural philosopher, statesman, entrepreneur, and more, is the subject of a two-part biography by filmmaker Ken Burns. It can be seen starting next Monday on PBS television and streaming.

I am doubtful the film will say anything about Franklin’s Masonic association. He was a busy man who milked the utmost from his eighty-four years in this world, whereas Burns’ story runs four hours.

Ken Burns, in his forty-one years of producing documentaries, has touched the periphery of Masonic history many times. Some of his previous biographies (Lewis & Clark, Mark Twain, The Roosevelts) honed in on famous Masons, and many of his histories bump into the works of others (The Statue of Liberty, The National Parks). Then, of course, his epic anthropological films (Jazz, Baseball, Country Music) unavoidably discuss the lives and deeds of a number of Masons.

It was on that basis that I once emailed him about twenty years ago to pitch the idea of a film on Freemasonry. Granted, it’s a huge subject, but it encompasses story elements that figure into his documentaries. From the giants of history astride the globe, to folks you might know living their lives on Main Street—with race relations and women’s inclusion in the mix—human progress is encapsulated in the Masonic story. There is a bottomless inventory of archives and artifacts, material culture and ephemera, art and music to drive Burns’ use of photographs and movie reels that supplement his interviews, narration, and cinematography.

I never did hear back.

     

‘An endeavor for perfection’

     

Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. Watch the video here.

Visiting a friend during the weekend, he was excited to show me this clip from a March episode of the longtime PBS series Antiques Roadshow that featured this amazing custom-made table decorated with Masonic symbols. (Turns out this was filmed at an event last year, on May 13, 2019.) You’ll see at the corners of the chess board an apron with the Square and Compasses, the Scimitar and Crescent, the Keystone, and the KT Crown and Cross. Freemasonry runs in the owner’s family.

Masonic things come up occasionally on the program. I remember the first item I ever saw was one of those early 20th century pocket watches. I think the appraiser put its value at a thousand bucks. This time, the subject is a singular work of amazing craftsmanship. Stunning.

Click here to see the video. The producers lavished nearly four minutes on this segment.

Please read the transcript of the interview below to revisit the historical details of the table according to its owner, and take due notice of how appraiser Brian Witherell assesses its worldly value—just in case your lodge has something similar laying about.


GUEST:
This table was made in 1900 by prisoners at the City of St. Louis Workhouse. My great-great-grandfather was the warden. And this was, according to family history, made as a gift for him. I know that his wife was the matron. They were there for some time. I don't know exactly how long that they were actually part of the, of the workhouse down there, but, um, it, it did seem, it's always been said it was a gift. It was presented as a gift to my great-great-grandfather.
APPRAISER:
I think you just have to assume that just because it's so finely crafted.

GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
It's almost customized for him, right?

GUEST:
Exactly. My great-great-grandfather and my family are Masons. It's got some Masonic symbols on it. They're Shriners. There's a Shrine symbol on it, as well. The thing I find most interesting is, it's 32 inches tall, 32 inches deep, and 32 inches wide. And in the Mason's world, 32nd Degree is the number you want to achieve.
APPRAISER:
Fascinating. So it's a parquetry table. So parquetry is, differs from marquetry in the sense that it's geometric forms that are inlaid in wood.

GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
The date is 1900, which is very visible because on the top, we can see where the one, nine, zero, zero for 1900. This undulating scallop top, fan forms on the edge, parquetry band with the games table in the middle, with the fraternal symbols in each corner. Beautiful, colorful bright table. Oak, walnut, mahogany, and there might be some rosewood in here, as well.

GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Rosewood can come into play if it was ever going to be sold, which I doubt it will be, if it was ever sold internationally. It's not a problem to sell locally.

GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
If we move down the table, we can see these great, big, meaty legs that taper down into a very small hoof foot in the... A goat we think it'd be modeled after, a goat?

GUEST:
Yeah. That's, that's the thinking.
APPRAISER:
These beautiful acorns, and, again, a parquetry joint there, with the hearts coming down. Prison woodworking was a very popular thing in the 19th and early 20th century.

GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
For the logical reason that it taught people a trade.

GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But it also kept them occupied and it gave them self-worth.

GUEST:
True.
APPRAISER:
And unlike either commissioned furniture or production furniture, there was really no time limits, right?

GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
I mean, they had nothing but time. So in here, you have an endeavor for perfection. And you can really see how this is finished almost perfectly from top to bottom. I've never seen anything quite as elaborate as this, you know? You will see simple examples, but nothing as complex as this one. Have you ever had it appraised?

GUEST:
I have not. It's been in the family. I'm the fifth generation. Hopefully my son will become the sixth generation eventually, at some point in time, much further on down the road. My father did up a note that keeps with the table with some census information that we keep with it. And he said if somebody at some point in time sold it, it might be as worth as much as $15,000. But it's never been professionally appraised. It's never really been out of the house.
APPRAISER:
Okay.

GUEST:
Except between moves, before it came here today.
APPRAISER:
Well, it's a one-of-one, you know.

GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
So it's, we're kind of making a guesstimate.

GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Based on what we think comparable sales for such material is. Parquetry tables, despite all the worksmanship that goes into them, generally don't bring a lot of money. At auction, we would estimate this at $2,000 to $3,000. If you were going to insure it, probably double that.

GUEST:
Okay, right.
APPRAISER:
$5,000. It certainly wouldn't be an easy thing to replace.

GUEST:
Exactly. It's part of our family.
APPRAISER:
Yeah.

GUEST:
And it makes it special for me.
APPRAISER:
What a nice heirloom to share and pass down.

GUEST:
Very much.
APPRAISER:
Thank you for sharing it with our family.

GUEST:
Thank you very much.
     

‘Endeavour: Series Two’

     

Two years almost to the day after its American debut, the ITV detective series Endeavour, the prequel story to the popular Inspector Morse mystery series, returned to PBS this evening, concluding just minutes ago. This episode, titled “Trove,” sheds further light on the eponymous detective’s disdain for a particular “ancient fraternity.”

Roger Allam as D.I. Fred Thursday.

Long story short: Oxford police investigate two homicides and a burglary that are linked. Of course it is young Morse who breaks the cases and brings the guilty to justice. The guilty are shown to be Freemasons who rely on one another for criminal conspiracy. A third character, a police sergeant, confides to Morse that he has been tapped to join the local lodge; it is thought that this man makes a certain crucial piece of evidence disappear early in the inquiry into the first murder. Morse cautions him: You cannot serve two masters. Eventually, you’ll have to choose.

In one of the final scenes, one of the killers desperately appeals to Morse, first suggesting it’s not too late to make more evidence disappear, but then warning him that he’s making powerful enemies who will destroy everything he holds dear.

Hmmph! The notion that a Mason would be unethical, and that another Mason would cover for him is… is preposterous.

It’s a great television program Check your local listings, or view here.
     

‘Masonic quilt on Antiques Roadshow’

     

Masonic quilt c. 1875 as seen on Antiques Roadshow on PBS.

    
The material culture of the Craft keeps popping up on reality television. Tonight on Antiques Roadshow, a mainstay of PBS programming to which all the pawn brokers, junkmen, and barterers on cable television are indebted, we got a look at a quilt covered in Craft symbols. (The episode in question is No. 8 of Season 17, which is the second of three hours shot in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.)

The quilt was identified as an “appliquéd Masonic quilt,” c. 1875; was appraised at between $6,000 and $8,000; and was described as being in excellent condition by Ms. Beth Szescila of Szescila Appraisal Service in Houston.

Not only do I own no modern digital recording devices to better reproduce these images, but my television is a 25-year-old Sylvania. I pointed a digital camera at the screen and tried to get the best possible shots of the quilt’s sudden appearance.

    

'Endeavour!'

  
Among the anti-Masonry in the entertainment media is the prejudice of one Inspector Morse, the eponymous character in the long-running (thirty-three episodes!) detective series from ITV. One story in particular, titled "Masonic Mysteries," from 1990, shows the Chief Inspector framed for a murder, seemingly by Freemasons. There's even a sub-plot concerning the staging of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

The origins of Morse's anti-Masonic leanings went largely unexplained, other than the general, perennial fear of Masonic conspiracy inside the institutions of justice in Britain, but this also lands squarely during the period of real life suspicion of Masonic inspired corruption of British institutions, leading up to Jack Straw's edict in 1997 mandating judges and magistrates to declare if they held Masonic membership.

Anyway, tonight on PBS, the prequel to the Inspector Morse series just concluded a moment ago. Titled "Endeavour," it depicts Morse on his first case, the murders of two young people near Oxford, with a related prostitution ring led by an automobile salesman. Confronted by Morse, the car dealer warns the young detective, bragging of having very important contacts in his circle of friends. "Or square," as he put it.

And thus, the viewer is given a glimpse into how the inspector came to his jaundiced view of the Craft.
  

‘Building the Great Cathedrals’

    

It’s not every day that I can endorse a television program, but tonight’s PBS broadcast of Nova, titled “Building the Great Cathedrals,” is an obvious choice. Although I haven’t seen it, if it is anywhere near as compelling as “Secrets of the Parthenon,” which I watched again Sunday night as a repeat, then it should be thrilling and revelatory.

As they say, check your local listings.