Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Masonic Apron
1820-1830
James T. Porter
USA: Conneticut, Middletown
Leather; silk; ink; gold leaf; paint
overall: 15 7/8 x 16 1/4 x 1/8 in.; 40.3225 x 41.275 x .3175 cm
Gift of Harold Burns
75.14

Printed Masonic apron; rectangular body with rounded corners and rounded flap; blue ink, colored with yellow, gold, and pink; inscribed "Designed and engraved by a brother Midd. Conn.; white silk border, all seeing eye on flap; Jachin and Boaz columns, standard third degree symbols, three columns in center with allegorical figures on top. Twill tape ties. Pale blue pleated silk trim on body and flap. Ground at bottom of design is painted green.

Perhaps in an effort to promote the authenticity of his product, the man who made this apron noted along its bottom edge that it had been “Designed and engraved by a brother, Midd. Conn.” The engraver, identified as James T. Porter, added gold paint to this example. The metallic paint would have made a striking effect in a candle-lit lodge. Porter’s design seems to have been successful in the marketplace; several examples of it survive into the current day. “The Badge of a Freemason: Masonic Aprons from the Collection,” March 2016-March 2017