Tracing Boards, Their Development & Their Designers

In Masonic lodges throughout the world, beautiful paintings or prints known as Tracing boards are used as a tool of Masonic contemplation.

But it wasn't always so. In fact, the Masonic Tracing Board evolved over many decades. In the early years of the Craft, chalk drawings were made on a table or floor in the centre of the tavern room or private home where a Masonic Lodge met. This design was then removed with a mop and bucket at the end of the meeting by the new member as a demonstration of his obligation of secrecy.

But how did these works of art evolve from this practice in a society generally hostile to the creation of any physical representations of the Ritual?

In this unmissable text, the author describes in detail the journey from chalk floor to permanent depiction; from marble slabs and wooden etchings to beautiful floor cloths and finally to the tracing boards we know today.

First published in 1962, this is a revised new edition.

30 colour and 12 b/w illustrations. 48 pages. Soft back

ISBN: 0907655955