Discussed in a little more detail on their respective pages the ‘United Masters Jewel’ mentioned was probably the Founder’s jewel. The Merit jewel and the Past Master’s jewel include the mural crown similar to that in the Ara No 348 badge.
The Lodge badge has been shown on Lodge paperwork such as letterhead and the regular Transactions for many years. The original design was drawn up just before Consecration in 1909 and appears on the Agenda. It was still used in 1915, on an Installation agenda.
Sometime between then and 1919 it changed. A Past Master’s breast jewel engraved about October 1919 (M. Blair Master Oct 1918 – Oct 1919) was changed in that part which appears on the jewel, the central shield. The lower left quarter signifying the Irish Constitution was altered from depicting a trowel to a maul.
The crest, an arm resting on a wreath may have been altered at the same time as it changed from a laurel wreath to a twisted cloth of two colours. The top right quarter was shaded as blue not red. The shading in heraldry to denote colours when in black and white for red and blue are; vertical lines (red) and horizontal (blue).
In September 1960, Bro Norman B Spencer a renowned Masonic scholar in answering a query about the badge in the Transactions Vol XIII No 15 , said ” . . . . The hand holding the maul is found in the crest of nearly every Lodge in the Irish Constitution.” Lodge seals for Irish Lodges invariably show a hand holding a trowel. It is amazing how such a scholar got it fundamentally wrong!
In March 1972, when succeeding to the Chair as Master Bro Bryce Major, a well-known authority on heraldry and like matters, re-drew the badge for a clearer printer’s block. However, he perpetuated the wrong tool (maul) and the wrong wreath (cloth). He corrected the shading for the English quarter. At the same time he drew the crest smaller than before.
March 1974 saw a further change when it reverted to that before March 1972. From Oct 1993 the design reverted to that of Bro Major, in 1972. In May 2002 the design reverted to the original of 1909.
Bro Alan Bevins copied that on the Consecration agenda, thus restoring the proper Irish emblem in the lower left hand quarter and the laurel wreath in the crest and the proper proportions as envisaged by the Founders.