Tracing
Boards from
St. Andrews
Lodge No. 1817
The Entered
Apprentice Degree
The Fellowcraft
Degree
The Master Mason
Degree
Here is a historically important set of
antique tracing boards depicting the symbolism of Three Degrees of Freemasonry
from St. Andrew's Lodge in the UK. Each tracing board measures 30 x 20
inches. Framed identically... size of frames 31.5 x 21.5 inches.
Each painting is marked with its order in the degree, with tacks on the upper
portions of their burled wood frames. They were found with there
pine storage box inscribed St. Andrews Lodge No. 1817.
History of Tracing Boards and
Floor Cloths
A framework of board or canvas,
on which the emblems of any particular Degree are inscribed, for the assistance of the
Master in giving a lecture. It is so called because formerly it was the custom to
inscribe these designs on the floor of the Lodge-room in chalk, which were wiped out when
the Lodge was closed. It is the same as the Carpet, or Tracing-Board.
The washing out of the designs chalked upon the floor is seen in the early
caricatures of the Craft where a mop and pail are illustrated. These would soon be
put aside when Lodges met in carpeted rooms. Then the symbols were shown by marking
out the Lodge with tape and nails or shaping the symbols in wood or metal to be laid upon
the floor or table or pedestal as the case might be in the Lodge. Such use of
separate symbols we have seen in English Lodges, as at Bristol, where the ancient
ceremonies are jealously and successfully preserved. An easy development would be to
picture the designs on a cloth to be spread out on the floor when in use or folded up for
storage. Then there would be the further movement to the stereopticon slides of a
similar character, and which find frequent use in the United States. Brother John
Harris in 1820 designed and made a set of Tracing Boards for the Three Degrees.
These designs were never authorized by the Grand Lodge of England, the individual
Lodges employed their own artists and the results varied accordingly, though the influence
of Brother Harris tended to the uniformity that practically now prevails among
Tracing-Board makers. Articles of much interest and value on the subject are
"Evolution and Development of the Tracing or Lodge Board," by Brother E. H.
Dring (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1916, volume xxix, pages 243 and 275), and
"Some Notes on Tracing Board of the Lodge of Union, No. 38" by Brother O.N.
Wyatt (Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, 1910, volume xxiii, page 191). The
latter article refers particularly to the work of Brother Josiah Bowring, a portrait
painter of London, who painted the boards for the Chichester Lodge in 1811, himself being
initiated in 1795.
