Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods by J S M WARD - First Edition 1921
Red cloth hardback book with gilt coloured lettering on the spine and Square and Compass design engraved into the front board. 23 x 15 x 5 cm approx. 373 pages.
Coloured frontispiece with tissue guard which has become detached from the main book. Many other illustrations in black & white.
The book is bound and is fairly compact & secure (The spine is not totally secure to the binding but the boards are still fixed in place). The pages are untrimmed at the bottom edge and some are a little discoloured. There is some foxing which is mainly to closed page edges. There is a picture of J S M Ward on the front end page together with a large inscription and a list on the second blank page. A number of paragraphs and words have been underscored in pencil or remarks made in the margin. Also, there are notes made on the back end page and back board.
The boards have some water damage causing bubbling to the fabric and are marked and show shelf wear across all edges and down the sunned, worn spine, and including bumped corners.
There is no dust cover.
Published by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd, 4 Stationers' Hall Court, London, E.C.4
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This item is one of a number of Masonic items donated by members and being sold to raise money to aid the upkeep and maintenance of the Bath Masonic Museum Collection, which is housed in the vaults of Bath Masonic Hall, previously the original Bath Theatre Royal.
BATH MASONIC HALL
Built in 1750, it was the very first Provincial Theatre to receive a Royal Warrant by special act of Parliament, and was the Theatre in which many famous Regency actors and actresses made their names before transferring to the London Stage, including Sarah Siddons, John Henderson and Charles Incledon. It was closed as a Theatre in 1805, when the Theatre Royal Company transferred to the building that is still their current home in Bath. It was then acquired by the Benedictine Mission to Bath, and became one of the foremost Catholic Chapels in this country, post-emancipation, before being sold in 1865 to become the home to one of the oldest provincial Masonic Lodges in the country - Royal Cumberland Lodge No.41. The building is now open to the public for guided tours, together with the Masonic Museum established in 1925.