Discoveries from the treasures of English Freemasonry

The Grand Master’s throne with a carved framework of gilt lime wood, flanked by a pair of Doric columns.

The throne’s arms and supports are formed from a double scroll of acanthus leaves with a lion’s mask and paw at the tip of each arm and the base of each support. The seat rails are carved with rosettes and incorporate on the front a rectangular plaque, carved with a Volume of the Sacred Law between the points of a pair of Compasses. The throne is surmounted by a carved wood ducal coronet, partially gilded and partially painted red, with a painted ermine trim; this is flanked below by two gilt cradles, on which are mounted a terrestrial globe and a celestial globe.

Soon after George Augustus, Prince of Wales (later George IV) became the first Royal Grand Master of the Moderns Grand Lodge in 1790, a ceremonial throne and two Warden’s chairs, replete with Masonic symbolism, were commissioned for use in the new Freemasons’ Hall in London. The London cabinet maker Robert Kennett, based at 67 New Bond Street, charged £157. 10s. (£17,000 itm) and took three months to complete the set in gilded lime wood.
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