Archive exhibit CC-ACC-000001. This wallet has sold and stays on the site as part of the permanent archive, the way exhibits stay up in a museum after they leave the floor.
Some wallets are just wallets. This one makes its statement before it ever comes out of a pocket. The front is deeply tooled with the Masonic square and compasses, the letter G at the center, and the edges are finished with dark leather lacing all the way around, the kind of detail you feel every time you pick it up. Flip it over and the tooling continues: a second Masonic design on the back, pillars and an all-seeing eye worked into the leather. Inside, it is a straightforward dark brown bifold with an ID window.
I described this wallet as handmade leather when I first wrote it up, and the tooling and lacing certainly look like hand work in the photographs. What I cannot show you is a maker's mark, because none is legible in my photos, so I am not putting a name on it.
Details:
Form: bifold wallet with laced edges
Front: tooled Masonic square and compasses with G at center
Back: second tooled Masonic design, appears to include pillars and an all-seeing eye motif
Interior: dark brown, with an ID window
Size: 9 x 3.5 inches open, 4.5 x 3.5 inches folded (from my original write-up, not re-measured)
Material and making: leather, described as handmade in my original copy
Maker: unknown. No maker's mark legible in the photographs.
Sale record: Sold through the Carissa's Collection Facebook Page for $25 plus shipping; the Page post was marked sold on August 22, 2024.
What remains unknown: who made it and when; its history before it reached the Collection.
Archive exhibit CC-ACC-000001. This wallet has sold and stays on the site as part of the permanent archive, the way exhibits stay up in a museum after they leave the floor.
Some wallets are just wallets. This one makes its statement before it ever comes out of a pocket. The front is deeply tooled with the Masonic square and compasses, the letter G at the center, and the edges are finished with dark leather lacing all the way around, the kind of detail you feel every time you pick it up. Flip it over and the tooling continues: a second Masonic design on the back, pillars and an all-seeing eye worked into the leather. Inside, it is a straightforward dark brown bifold with an ID window.
I described this wallet as handmade leather when I first wrote it up, and the tooling and lacing certainly look like hand work in the photographs. What I cannot show you is a maker's mark, because none is legible in my photos, so I am not putting a name on it.
Details:
Form: bifold wallet with laced edges
Front: tooled Masonic square and compasses with G at center
Back: second tooled Masonic design, appears to include pillars and an all-seeing eye motif
Interior: dark brown, with an ID window
Size: 9 x 3.5 inches open, 4.5 x 3.5 inches folded (from my original write-up, not re-measured)
Material and making: leather, described as handmade in my original copy
Maker: unknown. No maker's mark legible in the photographs.
Sale record: Sold through the Carissa's Collection Facebook Page for $25 plus shipping; the Page post was marked sold on August 22, 2024.
What remains unknown: who made it and when; its history before it reached the Collection.
