![[Anderson, James]](https://media.app.artisio.co/media/104cbde6-0d38-43cb-9e0f-bb721ef57bcf/inventory/c892de26-828b-4c67-8de2-37632e93f250/3e7d7914-6efc-434e-8e2e-015353c55930/0001_hgVsQJ_original.jpg)
[Anderson, James]
The Constitutions of the Free-Masons
Estimate: £300 - £400
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
Containing the History, Charges, Regulations, etc. of that most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity. For the Use of the Lodges. London: by William Hunter, for John Senex, and John Hooker, 1723. First edition, 4to, viii 91 [1] pp., half-title, engraved arms to head of dedication, without frontispiece, retaining contemporary panelled calf rear board (detached), front board absent
Footnote
Rare. Published six years after the foundation of the first Grand Lodge in England, the work was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1734 under the auspices of Benjamin Franklin, becoming the first masonic book printed in America: Franklin's edition has recently been described as ‘the seminal work of American Masonry, edited and published by one of the founding fathers, and of great importance to the development of colonial society and the formation of the Republic' (Paul Royster, ‘The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734): An Online Electronic Edition’, UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications, no. 25, 2008).