Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Armchair with Masonic Symbols
1760-1780
Maker not marked
USA: Massachusetts, Boston/Salem
Mahogany; maple; horsehair; Ethafoam; metal
overall: 38-1/4"h x 23-1/2"w x 19-1/2"d
Special Acquisitions Fund and through the Generosity of Harold French
86.40

Masonic Armchair with Masonic symbols on carved into back of chair including square and compasses and level; black horsehair upholstery (new, Ethafoam padding) and tapered legs.

According to an inscription on the seat, Amasa Davis, quartermaster general of the Massachusetts militia in Boston from 1786 to 1825, owned this chair in the 1820s. John Mears Jr., (1821-1912), a Mason, gave it to the Union Lodge in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1864. Its design was influenced by eighteenth-century English furnituremaker and designer Thomas Sheraton, whose 1793 book, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, introduced tapered legs, oval shapes, and urns, swags and other classically inspired decorative motifs. Furnituremakers and their patrons in both England and America quickly developed an affinity for this refined and graceful style. For further information, see blog post, February 23, 2016 http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2016/02/a-fashionable-and-ancient-masonic-cha.html AND Hamilton, John D., "Material Culture of American Freemasons," 1994, p. 56, 263.