Belonging: The Art of American Fraternal Societies

This auction - the first of its kind - celebrates the art, ritual objects, and ephemera of American fraternal organizations from the collection of Bruce and Julie Webb. These secretive societies - including the Oddfellows, Freemasons, Knight of Pythias, Shriners, and Elks - generated attractive, bizarre, and fantastical objects of all kinds. Paintings, costumes, arms & armor, prank-like (and mischievous) initiation devices, prints, lithographs, wood carvings, and "folk art" with a macabre bent are all hallmarks of their output. Examples in each category will be featured in the auction. With Lynne Adele, Bruce Lee Webb authored As Above, So Below: Art of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930, with a foreword by noted collector David Byrne of the Talking Heads.