My Collection of Fraternal Jewels:
I started collecting fraternal jewels a while back. They embody everything that interests me. They are wonderful, extremely personal, historical objects. They show all levels of craft, manufacturing methods, and intrinsic value. They show the relative economic means of the various fraternities over time - and by extension something of the values placed on the organization by its members.
And they are shiny.
These are really listed in no particular order. I am attempting to find out the stories behind these. Sometimes these bear an officer's name, other times they are just a badge of office and are silent as to who might have warn them, where and when. Some of these were obviously the prized possessions of a group or an individual, and I intend to show them respect.
If you stumble across my little blog and find a particular piece that would more appropriately 'belong' to someone else due to family or organizational ties, please contact me. These are not for sale, but I'd rather these get back to where they belong, and I place that above the intrinsic value.
In a weird way I do not really own these - they sort of own me. There are many that I could not bring myself to melt or sell. You can not un-stir the coffee so to speak, once they are gone, they are gone forever. And that would make me very sad.
I can safely say that the people that owned these are long gone, but these relics still exist.
Most of these are Masonic, but I have come across some very interesting pieces from other organizations. This whole adventure has been fun.
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