This hand-painted, ca. 1790–1810 Masonic punch bowl is one of four similar-yet-distinct “English white” bowls in the collection. The House of the Temple received these in 2016 from the estate of Ill. Claude H. Harris, Jr., 33°, Past Master of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, and a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Alexandria, VA.

Like other bowls from this collection, around its exterior basin, you can find a number of significant symbols in Freemasonry, including working tools, such as the sector, protractor, parallel ruler, and—of course—the square and compasses. Depictions of the sun, moon, seven stars of the Pleiades, and the waters of heaven (or waterfall), decorate the bowl’s interior sides, and in the bottom lies the checkered pavement and the pillars Jachin & Boaz with a letter G between them.

This bowl and its three companions currently are on display in the Grand Archivist’s Collection.