Page 149 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 149

The set of engravings of the jewels from the Freemasons’ Magazine for 1796 has
already been described in the previous chapter.
Two curious coloured prints, framed and glazed, purporting to represent
Masonic ceremonies in progress, were given by Bro. Courage (W.M. 1900), in
November 1913. They are two of a set of seven which appeared in several forms,
coloured and uncoloured, with English or French titles. They were published
by “Thomas Palser, Surry Side, Westminster Bridge, Jan. 30, 1809”, and are well
known to collectors of Masonic curiosities as the “Palser prints”.
In November 1928, Bro. P. J. Dawson presented a fine proof impression of a
design by Cipriani, “drawn by Bartolozzi and engraved by M Bovi”. This is
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exhibited in the Lodge during its meetings. The subject is a group of nine “putti”,
with instruments of the arts; and in February 1932 Bro. Sefi gave an engraving of
the Nine Muses by Bartolozzi after Cipriani.
The Lodge also has a good impression of an engraving by Bartolozzi after
Cipriani, dated 1766, showing figures representing Sculpture and Painting
receiving inspiration from a winged “Muse”, who descends from the sky on a
cloud, a flame on her forehead. The giver is unrecorded.
There are also photographs of the Hill of the Muses at Athens, and of the
Temple of the Muses on the Appian Way outside Rome, presented respectively
by Bro. H. R. Oldfield (W.M. 1910 and 1927) in 1910, and Bro. Fransella (W.M.
1938) in 1929, and of the portrait of Mrs Crook, presented by Bro. Maurice
Beachcroft in 1938, and described in Chapter Fifteen.