Thread: John Barber pair in piqued ivory

Originally Posted by Phrank

Beautiful set, they have the Square and Compasses, would these have belonged to a Freemason?

In the case of John Barber, it's not very clear. My understanding is that it was (and is) strongly frowned upon for Freemasons to make products advertising their affiliation. Barber used the square and compass as his mark, it wasn't an occasional or specialty mark, but on all his goods. So far, I haven't seen anything contemporary to his production that talks about the mark, so I just don't know what to make of it.