A Holy Royal Arch or otherwise known as “Chapter” Principle collar jewel, this is a Z or Zerubbabel’s (Masters) jewel.
At first glance the collar jewel looks like any other Zerubbabel’s Principle jewel however this one has a very interesting story, last week’s Museum Monday we looked at surviving items from the occupation and gave some of the history of the ransacking of the Masonic temple and treasures by the occupying forces.
This Collar jewel was one of the items that was looted from the Le Marchant Street Temple in January 1941 and subsequently ended up in Germany, along with many other items for display in an anti-Freemasonry exhibition, the jewel belonged to Loyalty Chapter No.243 and was presented to the Chapter by Dr James Balfour-Cockburn Past Provincial Zerubbabel in 1890. It was during his time as Provincial Grand Master (1894-1907) that Dr Balfour-Cockburn set up and founded the Provincial Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons on the 22nd November 1898. The reverse of the jewel is beautifully inscribed.
The jewel remarkably survived the war and somehow managed to end up being found at flea market in Germany in the late 1990s. thankfully for the Province it was found by a German Freemason, Companion Norbert Schoen who was himself a collector of Masonic artefacts, he recognised the inscription and after carrying out research into Loyalty Chapter identified it to be one of the looted items and in 1999 returned the jewel to the Island, and it was presented to the Provincial Museum.
Companion Schoen is a member of Neidersachesen Royal Arch Chapter No. 4, meeting in Hannover Germany.
