£1,000 - £2,000
The Society of Bucks - Buck's Jewel - an 18th century circa 1770 silver filigree hand painted porcelain & seed pearls star pendant jewel. The pendant having a star-shaped body with each arm decorated with foliate inspired pierced motifs. Central circular glazed front jewel face depicting the Society of Bucks' coat of arms. The coat of arms showing its attributes and mottoes: ' Industry Produceth Wealth, Innocence with Freedom, We Obey, Unanimity is the Strength of Society, and Be Marry and Wise '. A central crest with buck facing left, enclosed within a pearl & gold wired frame. The jewel kept in original velvet lined & leather shell shaped case.
The Society of Bucks was long thought to be a short-lived secret society, based exclusively in Liverpool, dating from the 1750s until the 1770s. The discovery of a book printed in 1770 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and a paper, published in 1890, entitled 'A forgotten rival of Masonry: the noble order of Bucks’, as well as several mentions in newspapers, revealed that it was founded as early as 1723. By 1752-1753, the Society had about 19 lodges across the country, as well as one in Bombay. It seems to have declined in the 1770s but some lodges were still extant in the 1820s.
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