Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Ritual Bell with Masonic Symbols
1860
Cape Cod Glass Works
USA: Massachusetts, Sandwich
Glass
overall: 12"h x 12-1/2"dia
Museum Purchase
2001.078

Colorless lead glass bell, knob ground flat on top, engraved inscription: "MONITER LODGE/ WALTHAM, MASS;/ Presented by L.A. Felix".

Bookkeeper Louis A. Felix (1837-1910) joined Monitor Lodge of Waltham, Massachusetts, in 1859. He presented this attractive bell to the lodge the following year. It looks like a cloche or garden bell designed to protect young plants, a product made by American glass companies from the 1810s on. However, this bell had a different purpose. Members of Felix’s lodge likely used it to chime symbolic midnight during a Masonic ritual based on the Biblical story of Hiram Abiff’s murder at King Solomon’s Temple. Crafted from colorless lead glass (instead of green bottle glass) and handsomely engraved, this bell doubtless cost more than the garden variety. It was a meaningful gift. Because of the bell’s role in ritual and the Felix's name permanently engraved upon it, Monitor Lodge members likely thought of him at a solemn point in their ceremonies for many years. For further information, see blog post, May 28, 2009 http://nationalheritagemuseum.typepad.com/library_and_archives/2009/05/louis-felixs-bell.html and also see Newell, Aimee, et.al., "Curiosities of the Craft: Treasures from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts Collection", 2013, p. 118.