Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Mug with Masonic Symbols
ca. 1790
John Sadler (1720-1789); Wedgwood and Company
England: Liverpool and Burslem
Transfer-printed earthenware
overall: 6-1/8"h x 4-1/8"w x 6-1/2"d (with handle)
Special Acquisitions Fund
85.36.1

Masonic Mug; straight-sided mug with Masonic transfer print; reads "A Heart that Conceals, and the Tongue that Never Reveals"; designs include three Masons wearing regalia; "Amor, Honor et Justitia", square and compasses, columns, "G"; flooring, candlesticks, beehive, plumb and level; signed in design "I Sadler, Liverpl"; impressed mark on bottom "Wedgwood & Co."

In the late 1700s and early 1800s, potters and decorators created ceramics ornamented with detailed designs applied with transfer prints. These popular wares were imported from England to the United States in large numbers. Depictions of Masonic symbols and lodge officers—a Master and two Wardens—along with Masonic mottos, including “A Heart That Conceals, and the Tongue that Never Reveals,” were meant to appeal to Freemasons. For further information, see Hamilton, John D., "Material Culture of the American Freemasons," 1994, p. 217.