Obra del mes de marzo de 2026

Work: Handkerchief
Place / Date: England, 19th century
Material / Technique: Openwork fabric, silk, with taffeta binding; printed on one side with direct method and copper plate technique; and the background hand-painted
Dimensions: 82 x 84 cm
Collection: Museu Romàntic Can Llopis, Sitges. Romanticism Collection, núm. inv. 1480

The identification and cataloguing of objects linked to Freemasonry represents a great challenge. Often, these pieces arrive in collections with incomplete documentation, without a defined origin or context of use, a fact that responds
to the discreet nature of the institution and to the successive persecutions in certain periods and territories, which forced the concealment or dispersion of materials.

In our country, without going too far back in time, Francisco Franco's obsession with ending Freemasonry led to the mass confiscation of objects and the sentencing of thousands of people to prison or exile.

From the ephemeral sketch to the tracing cloth
The piece we are analyzing is a quadrangular fabric that features printed Masonic motifs. The evolution of these objects reflects the history of Masonic practice. In the 18th century,
the lodges met in spaces where symbolic designs were drawn with chalk or charcoal on the floor or on the table and erased at the end of the session.

This practice evolved, during the second half of the 18th century, towards more durable and decorative mobile supports, such as canvases. Already in the 19th century, there was an expansion of permanent tracing boards, often painted on canvas and framed, with designs unique to certain lodges but sharing common meanings and symbols or with standardized designs.

Functionality: memory and didactics
In general, these fabrics contain a dense iconography that includes the Temple of Solomon, the eye of the Great Architect, the compass and other motifs such as skulls (reflection on mortality) and bees (symbol of industriousness and cooperation), among others.

But what interpretation can we make of Masonic objects? The analysis must be carried out taking into account that Freemasonry puts the conceptual message before the aesthetic form, since it uses objects and figures as vehicles of communication to transmit philosophical truths and initiatory doctrines. In the lodges, the complex system of gestures, secret words and ritual objects functions as a real communicative toolbox.

A look at pieces similar to the one kept in the Sitges Museums in different institutions brings us closer to different terminologies, which reinforces the idea of ​​the difficulty of approaching Masonic rites if we are not initiated. While the Victoria
and Albert Museum calls them handkerchief 1 (mocador), the Mário Soares Foundation uses the term painel de loja 2 and the Hermitage catalogues them as a Masonic carpet. On the other hand, the Museum of Freemasonry in London uses the terms tracing cloth or floor cloth (drap de traç o drap de terra).

Furthermore, according to some sources, these pieces could have had several functions: as a mnemonic resource that helps initiates remember the concepts learned in the ceremonies (Andreu i Isbert, 2001: 101); as a didactic tool used by experienced members to help new brothers understand the concepts and degrees of Freemasonry and, why not, as a ritual object (Andreu i Isbert, 2001: 102).

In relation to this last utility, it should be borne in mind that the handkerchief preserved in Sitges, as well as the similar pieces that we have located, contain some emblems and signs specific to the ceremony of admission of a new member to the lodge (Andreu i Isbert, 2001: 102).

Technique and distribution
Regarding the manufacture, the technical textile study reveals a great homogeneity: these are openwork fabrics, silk, with taffeta binding, printed using the copper plate technique and with the direct method. Although the predominant dye in the symbology is black,
we observe examples in which the background has been painted red or blue freehand, with a brush.

The fact that most museums in which we have found similar pieces consider the place of production to be England is not accidental, given that copperplate printing applied to textiles was successfully developed by the Irishman Francis Nixon around 1752. Nixon later moved to England, where he ran the company Nixon & Co. Over the next twenty years, this form of production became practically a monopoly of Dublin and London. Later, world-famous manufactures such as that of Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, in the French city of Jouy-en-Josas, adopted this printing technique.

The presence of handkerchiefs with an identical or very similar design in such distant geographies confirms that these objects circulated globally and acted as vehicles of the material culture of Freemasonry in various parts of the world. As we have noted, we find examples catalogued in institutions of great international importance, from the Hermitage to the Victoria and Albert Museum, including the Mário Soares Foundation, in Portugal.

In a closer scope, this dispersion is evident in collections such as that of Vives Campomar, in the Museum of Menorca, which preserves four specimens, or in singular pieces such as a handkerchief related to the revolt of the trabucaires in Perpignan 3 and the piece guarded by the Sitges Museums. This recurrence of motifs in such diverse geographical points demonstrates how Masonic iconography was able to cross borders through these silk supports. Thus, these pieces which, according to Adolfo Alonso Carvajal (Venerable Master of the Sol de Levante Lodge 161 of Menorca) are also called "rape handkerchiefs" 4, allow us to recover an iconography that, for centuries, oscillated between ritual visibility and protective silence.

 
1.    https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O363652/handkerchief- unknown/
2.    http://casacomum.org/cc/pesqArquivo. php?termo=painel+de+loja
3.    MiRÓ i SolÀ, Lluís. El procés dels trabucaires (Perpinyà, 1845- 1846). El procés polític [en línia]. Segle dinou. http://
segledinou.cat/wp/el-proces-dels-trabucaires-perpinya-1845- 1846-el-proces-politic/
4.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDp4Sg-AnUs

Basic bibliography

ANDREU ADAME, Cristina; ISBERT VAQUER, Francesc et al. J. Vives Llull. L’home i el col·leccionista. Maó: Museu de Menorca, 2001.
DESANTES, Blanca; FRADES, María José. Atributos masónicos en el Archivo Histórico Nacional. Sección Guerra Civil. Salamanca: Ministerio de Cultura, 1993.
SÁNCHEZ FERRÉ, Pere. La maçoneria a Catalunya (1868-1947), vol. I. Premià de Mar: Clavell Cultura, SL, 2008.