Tall armchair, for the Master of a Masonic Lodge, in giltwood, with back and seat upholstered in red leather, the carving including Masonic emblems.

An oversized armchair of giltwood, with the seat, a panel of the back, and two arm pads upolstered in red leather. The upper panel of the back is carved with Masonic symbols, indicating that this chair was made for the Master of a Masonic Lodge. The symbols include a triangle enclosing a rayed sun, with the letter G set centrally; an open book with a pair of dividers and a set-square (on the left); and a ladder, plumb line and plumb level (on the right). The corners of the panel are carved with 5-petalled flower heads, forming spandrels. The lower panel of the back is carved with a crocodile, facing legt, its feet apparently in water.
Design
The chair is very rectangular in form, raised on tapering, fluted legs at the front, and on tapering, square-sectioned back legs, that rake backwards. The front legs appear to have been designed as a standard fluted leg, with tapering, foliated foot but the legs have been elevated by approximately 7 cm with additional mouldings and a plain-turned peg foot. The seat rails are carved, below a channelled top moulding, with fictive fringing, as if for upholstery, a device that originated in France in the 1780s. The 'fringing' consists of approximately 4 cm of plain fringe, interspersed with more decorative hangers carved as spirals or tiers of beads. The heading of the 'fringing' is carved with a narrow cord pattern. The blocks at the top of the front legs are carved with paterae or rosettes on their visible faces. The back uprights, continuations of the back legs, are carved below the upholstered panel with overlapping laurel, as are the cross rails below and above the panel carved with the crocodile. Above the joint with the arms the uprights are carved as attached Corinthian columns, topped by ball finials. The cross rails above and below the panel with the symbols are also carved with laurel. The top rails supports a central tablet which rises above the rail. The front surface is carved with trellising. The panel of symbols below this is additionally set at the corners with carved, trumpet-like flowers. The arms curve down from a point mid-way down the upholstered panel. The top surfaces are carved with laurel and set with long arm-pads, heavily upholstered and covered in leather. The hand rests are carved as lion's heads. They are supported on back-curving, square-sectioned arm supports, the top surface carved with husks on a recessed ground. These rise from all blocks above the front legs, their visible faces carved with an upright laurel leaf. These blocks accommodate the height of the seat upholstery. The back, seat and arm ads are upholstered in read leather, edged with spaces nails, with heads covered in leather, applied over a narrow braid of the same leather.
Construction
The chair is of standard chair construction, with rails tenoned between the uprights and the legs, the joints pegged. As the chair is painted ochre underneath it is difficult to identify the wood used without microscopic identification but it is likely to be beech. The seat is reinforced below with open braces, almost certainly original. The upholstery shows a plain-weave jute webbing and base cloth. The back is entirely lined with a single panel of crimson Russia leather, edged with covered nailing over a leather braid. At the top it is cut away to reveal evidence of fixings for a separate cresting ornament.
Symbolism
The symbols carved on the chair are largely standard Masonci symbols, though not all commonly appear on a Master's chair.
Book= The Book of Sacred Laws. In Britain in 1814 this would generally signify the Bible, although masons from other traditions might now use different Scriptures
Set square = An emblem of virture, derived from the tools of working masons. We should 'square our actions by the square of virtue with all mankind'.
Compasses or dividers= Our duty to our neighbour, which 'keeps us within bounds with all mankind but more especially with our brother masons'.
Triangle enclosing the sun and the letter G = the triangle is an ancient symbol of God and the letter reminds us that all we do is within the sight of God.
Ladder = Jacob's ladder, from the Bible story in Genesis 28. 10-17, where Jacob dreamed of a ladder linking earth and heaven.
Plumb line = this device measures verticals and represents uprightness and rectitude.
Level = this device measures horizontals and represents 'peaceful, balanced poise' and equality among men.
Lions' heads= these often appear on the Master's chair, together with, sometimes, lion's paw feet. They make reference to the Throne of King Solomon and are often used for thrones or chairs of estate, whether within a Masonic tradition or not.
Crocodile= this was a fashionable ornament of the early 19th century but it was argued that it represented Egypt, which was thought to be the origin of Freemasonry. It was also sometimes an emblem of God, having a secondary, inner transparent covering to the eye, which allowed it to observe, while seeming to be asleep.

Purchased Christie's, London, from the sle 15 April, lot 16. Registered File 82/710. Its condition at the time was recorded as 'Gilding rubbed; leather - especially armrests - worn.' At that time it was dated to 1795, which was a reasonable dating before the full history of it was known. The catalogue entry quotes the Lodge Minutes (see below) in 1814, but added a puzzling short paragraph which seems to justify the 1795 date: 'The newly purchased chair was obviously to replace an earlier chair but the suggestion that the new chair was then already old, indicated in the above entry [not clear to what this refers in the sentence about Connop from the Minutes], is strenghthened by the fact that Burra was paid £30 in all, as he had spent a further £9. 15s. 0d. on 'new-gilding' it. Burran himself had bought the chair from another Mason, Bro. Audley.'

On 5 July 1988 John Hamill, Librarian and Curator at the Museum of Freemasonry, wrote to Clare Graham, author of Ceremonial and Commemorative Chairs in Great Britain (1994) concerning this chair:
' The Master's Chair of Old Union Lodge No. 46
The note concerning this chair in both of the Christie's catalogue entries is an inaccurate summary of a complicated story. The quotation from the Minutes of the Lodge for 12 April 1814 is correct. It is quoted from the lodge history published in 1935 [Sir Gerald.W. Wollaston and J. Tindal-Robertson, A Short History of the Old Union Lodge, No. 46 on the Roll of the United Grand Lodge of the Ancient Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons of England, 1735-1935, published 1935], regrettably the original minutes and other records were destroyed during the blitz. The chair was originally purchased by the lodge in 1814 from Bro. Connop, a member of the Lodge. He is entered in the Grand Lodge Register as having been initiated in teh Lodge on 8 February 1803 and is described as John Connop a Carver and Filer [possibly a mistake in typing for 'gilder'] aged 30, residing in Noble Street, Foster Lane, [London].
In 1818 the lodge began to go into decline. In 1825 it removed to the Perseverance Tavern, 15 King Street, Soho. The Tavern Master, William Audley, joined the Lodge which unfortunately was unable to pay its bills at the end of 1826 resulting in Audley seizing the Lodge furniture and equipment as security for the outstanding bills. On 13 March 1827 James Burra, a Solicitor, joined the lodge, paid of [sic] the debt to the tavern, retrieved the furniture etc. and presented it back to the Lodge, in 1827. Before doing so he had the Master's chair regilded at a cost of £9 -15 -0.
My reading of the Minute of 12 April 1814 would be that John Connop "having taken instructions" from the Lodge produced it for them in 1814, i.e. he made it - particularly as he was a Carver and Filer [this second use of the term suggests Mr Hamill was copying it correctly - see above].

The two chairs, for the Senior and Junior Warden of the Lodge, were sold at Phillips, London, 18 June 1991, lot 115. They were of similar, but simpler form, and shorter than the Master's chair, with no decoration on the panel below the leather in the back. The upper panel of one showed a carved plumb level (generally used on a chair for a Senior Warden); the other chair shows a plumb line (generally used on the chair of Junior Warden). They were described as 'William IV'. See reference below for a note of their making in 1833. They had previously been sold in Christie's Fine English Furniture Sale on 30 January 1986, lots 314 and 315, and were sold from the Old Union Lodge, No. 46.

The use of the motif of the crocodile was highly fashionable in the early years of the 19th century, not least because of interest in Napoleon's Egyptian campaigns and the archaeological work undertaken at the same time. The V&A has a hanging cabinet of about 1800-1815 (Museum no. W.63-1935) which is ornamented with a very similar figure of a crocodle. Seealso James Stevens Curl in 'Legends of the Craft: the Architecture of Masonic Halls', in Country Life, vol. CLXXX no. 4644, 21 August 1986, pp. 581-583. He explains the masonic belief that the art of architecture originated in ancient Egypt and was developed in Jerusalem, by those who built the Temple for Solomon, migrating to Europe from there.

In a Freemason's Lodge, the furniture and fittings are designed to support a very traditional ritual that marks the meetings of these societies. Three special chairs are provided, for the Master and for the Senior and Junior Wardens of the Lodge, and these sit against the East, North and South walls. They are generally much bigger than domestic chairs, and are carved, gilded or painted with Masonic symbols. This chair was made for the Master of the Union Lodge in London, in 1814. The design was based on fashionable chair designs of the late-18th century, and shows a distinctly French taste, with the gilding and, most especially, the trimming of the lower edge of the chair with carved ‘fringe’. It is unusual in that we know the maker, a London carver and gilder called John Connop, who was himself a member of the Lodge.

W.70-1982