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Tankard with Masonic Symbols
ca. 1815
Maker not marked
England: Liverpool
Transfer-printed creamware
overall: 5-3/4"h x 4-1/4"w (with handle)
Special Acquisitions Fund
80.51

Straight-sided creamware tankard with rimmed base. Black overglaze transfer-printed engraving in Venetian red. Female figures representing Faith and Charity stand atop Corinthian columns that flank the seated figure of Hope. The columns are entwined by ribbons reading "Vide, Aude, Tace," and "Sit Lux et Lux Fuit." Between the columns is an arrangement of Masonic symbols with mosaic flooring or checkered pavement at the bottom, sun, moon, all-seeing eye, square and compasses, plumb, shovel, cock, beehive, level and others. The motto, "Memento Mori," also appears.


The image design is derived from the format of Masonic membership certificates of the 1795 period. The "Vide, Aude, Tace" motto was later adopted with slight alteration by the United Grand Lodge of England in 1815. For further information, see Hamilton, John D., "Material Culture of the American Freemasons," 1994, p. 219