‘Tracing board garners more than $37K at auction’

    

Antiques and the Arts Weekly

Speaking of auctions (see post below), Antiques and the Arts Weekly reports the sale last month of a nineteenth century tracing board that once hung inside a lodge way up in Hamilton, a village at the center of the triangle formed by Albany, Binghamton, and Syracuse. Known to New England Auctions as “Hamilton D,” the oil on canvas was painted by Ezra Ames (1768-1836), a major eighteenth and nineteenth-century portrait artist, and Freemason, based in Albany. This 57½ by 40¼-inch instructional guide to Masonic symbolism, framed in mahogany, was expected to garner between $4,000 and $8,000 but, at the sound of the gavel, it won $37,800.

If your lodge must vacate its building, don’t throw nothin’ away.

Antiques and the Arts Weekly

Also auctioned was this Chinese-made punch bowl, c.1800, going for $2,772.

The Connecticut-based periodical says:

An early Masonic tracing board painted by Ezra Ames led the day. Depicting various emblems and symbols of the Freemasons, including a skull and crossbones, keys, a sun, quills and, of course, the square and compass, the work, identified as “Hamilton D,” was bid past its $4/8,000 estimate to achieve $37,800. This oil on canvas painting was housed in a later nineteenth century mahogany frame, and the work was featured in J. Godwin and C. Goodwillie’s Symbols in the Wilderness: Early Masonic Survivals in Upstate New York (2016), a copy of which was included with the lot. As described in that text: “This tracing board, more than most examples, shows the hand of a trained painter. Several things about it are unique, beginning with the three hanging objects at bottom left, inscribed in neither Latin, Greek, nor Masonic code. The death symbols of the third degree are at ground level…. No other tracing board gives such prominence to the skull and crossbones.”

 

Three other tracing boards from the Hamilton lodge, also featured in Symbols in the Wilderness, included those identified as “Hamilton A,” “B” and “C.” All were appraised by White & White in Skaneateles, N.Y., and the other three were not attributed to any known artist. These others, each with the same $4/8,000 estimate, sold for prices ranging from $5,040 to $10,710.

‘New book on Masonic art and architecture’

     
A new book concerning Freemasonry in New York is just out. Symbols in the Wilderness: Early Masonic Survivals in Upstate New York is co-authored by Christian Goodwillie and Joselyn Godwin, and tells the story of the fraternity’s art and architecture during the Federal period. From the publicity:

Symbols in the Wilderness: Early Masonic Survivals in Upstate New York by Director of Special Collections Christian Goodwillie, began with a chance glance at a building as he drove to Cooperstown, New York. Intrigued by the structure, Western Star Lodge chartered in 1797 and now the Bridgewater Masonic Lodge, he became even more interested in the artwork it once housed. Thus Goodwillie’s exploration of Masonic symbols – expressed in paintings, murals, textiles, and graphics – began.

The resulting book, co-authored by Colgate University Professor of Music Emeritus Joselyn Godwin, provides documentation and analysis of Upstate New York’s hidden heritage of Masonic buildings and material culture from the 18th and early 19th century. It is co-published by Hamilton College’s Richard W. Couper Press and Colgate University’s Upstate Institute. Hamilton’s Digital Imagery Specialist Marianita Peaslee produced the volume’s many color images.

Freemasonry played a vital role in the social development of New York State. Its Lodges provided a trusted place for newcomers to meet and for friendships and business partnerships to develop, free from political, professional and sectarian differences. During its explosive growth from 1790 to the end of the 1820s, Masonic brethren produced iconic architecture, as well as extraordinary examples of folk art. Most of these have remained entirely unknown outside the Upstate lodges that, against all hazards, have preserved them. Their symbolism seems mysterious and confusing to outsiders, but once explained, offers insight into a period and place unique in American history.

A presentation and book-signing is scheduled with the co-authors on Sunday, August 21 at Johnson Hall in Johnstown, New York at 1 p.m.