The coats of arms of the various Freemason lodges
Below is a print from the book Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World, Represented by Figures Drawn by Bernard Picard , vol. IV, Amsterdam, JF Bernard.
At the time of the publication of the first edition (1723-1737) of this monumental work, a landmark in the history of religions, Freemasonry was still in its infancy on the European continent. It was in London that the Amsterdam engraver Bernard Picart (1673-1733), the driving force behind the entire publication, set the single scene he dedicated to it. Entitled ” The Freemasons ,” it depicts a display of coats of arms representing one hundred and twenty-eight English lodges, including, under number 90, that of one of the first French lodges to be historically well documented, founded around 1725 by Britons, and known as ” Saint Thomas Lodge No. 1 ,” which met at the sign of the Louis d’argent, on the rue des Boucheries.
As editions continued to appear throughout the century, Picart’s successors published a posthumous edition in 1807, illustrated with several engravings, some spanning two pages, which itself contained dozens of pages on the rise of the order.
