New Malta jewels from Toye, Kenning and Spencer for Indianapolis' Raper Commandery No. 1 arrived with a largish UPS thud on my doorstep last week. We haven't had these available for several decades and members have resorted to cadging them off of Ebay. We're fully stocked now, and the workmanship is outstanding.
I don't mean to offend, but I never understood why the Order has to feature the American eagle. I fail to make the connection to chivalry, medieval Templars, Christian spirituality, etc. The anachronistic design serves only to remind us that the KT uniform is as old as that of the Grand Army of the Republic.
ReplyDeleteJay
The GAR is probably where the jewel came from to begin with.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, at one time it was believed by many in the medal collecting community that it was indeed a GAR piece, and was known for many years among collectors as either the "GAR Funeral Medal" or the "GAR Death Badge" (or permutations thereof), this having been due to a combination of faulty research along with a general lack of awareness of the Masonic Knights Templar:
ReplyDeletehttp://civilwarvets.blogspot.com/2007/12/grand-army-of-republic-death-badge.html
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/45452-interesting-us-medal-military-civil-or-fantasy/
As for its "anachronistic" design, there's really no question whatsoever that it was indeed a material reflection of the rising tide of nationalism and patriotic fervor which marked post-Civil War American culture of the late nineteenth century.