The early days - Masons and pubs

Two lots coming at a Bonhams sale trace Freemasonry back to its earlier days when lodges met in pubs and took their names from them.

The first (pictured above) is a pint mug dating from 1750 and engraved: "David Fraser at ye Dundee Arms Plough Ally Wapping." - the name of a London hostelry.

Inside it is engraved "WYNN" - probably John Wynn (1740-1778).

As the footnote in the catalogue says: "The Dundee Arms in Wapping - the latter a centre for ship-building and the victualling and supplying of ships - was used between 1747 and 1763 as a meeting place for the Masonic Lodge which came to be known as the Old Dundee Lodge."

It is estimated to sell for £300 when it goes under the hammer in Chester on November 22.

At the same sale are these three mugs: two pre-industrial pint mugs and a half pint mug dating from about 1750.

One of the pint mugs is engraved "J King, Blacksmith arms."

As the footnote adds: "The Blacksmith's Arms was the meeting place in 1795 for the Masonic Oak Lodge."

The mugs are expected to sell for £120.

Edward VII bust

Here is an alabaster bust of Edward VII (1841-1910) wearing a Masonic collar. It is being sold by Criterion Auctioneers in Wandsworth, London. It is expected to sell for up to £80.

Pakistan regalia

This 90-year-old collection of Masonic regalia and founder's medal is of interest because it is from Pakistan.

The 1922 Kohat Lodge silver guilt medal and the accompanying embroidered aprons are expected to fetch up to £90 when they go under the hammer at Andrew Smith and Son saleroom near Winchester, Hants, UK.

19th century photo of Masons in Cairo

 This rather splendid photo is being sold by Bloomsbury auctions in London with an estimate of £400-£600.

It was taken in Cairo in 1895 and is being sold with others.

The catalogue description follows and includes a brief history of Masonry in Egypt.

Freemasonry.- Makarios (Shaheen Bek) (Shaheen, Bek) Kitab Al Adab Al Masoriyah, illustrations, browned, modern half morocco, original upper wrapper bound in (foxed), Cairo, 1895 § Abassi (Mahmoud, Bek) B`ism Mouhandis Al Kawn Al `Azam..., illustrations, lightly stained at lower edge, original wrappers, stapled, browned, Cairo, National Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and accepted Masons of Egypt, 1919 § Al Masouneyah, Garidat Adabeyah Masouneyah, 2 vol., facsimile reprint, roan backed-rexine, Cairo, 1901-02 [but later]; and 15 others on Egyptian Freemasonry and some related ephemera including photographs of masonic meetings, invitations to meetings and a lottery ticket from the Grand Loge Nationale d`Egypte, 8vo & 4to (sm. qty) order`s rejection of dogma and its tendency to create a platform for political debate, membership was not dictated by the boundaries of faith or denomination.

However, this inclusive, combined with the order`s pretence of secrecy, was what eventually led to its demise. Conspiracies and accusations, primarily of the Freemasons` support for Zionism, abounded and, after the creation of Israel in 1948, forced many lodges to close.

In addition the rise of a self-made military elite after the 1952 Revolution either pressured pro-British lodges to close or made revolutionary lodges obsolete.

Despite the common conception that Freemasonry would only attract a Christian membership, it thrived in Egypt and across the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Brought over by French Masons following Napoleon`s expedition in 1798 the ties between Egyptian Freemasonry and French Republicanism would last until its decline after the Second World War.

Indeed, whilst traditional English lodges that sprung up much later (not until the 1870s) attracted a membership of landed elite that benefitted from the British occupation, French lodges drew political activists and ambitious members of the middle class who were discontent with the imposed British hierarchy.

Well-known personalities included the anti-imperialist Islamist reformers Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and his disciple Muhammad `Abduh including other supporters of the `Urabi revolt of 1882, as well as nationalist politicians like Mohammed Farid and Saad Zaghloul.