Symbolica
The Setting Maul, the Spade, the Coffin and the Sprig of Acacia

The Setting Maul, the Spade, the Coffin and the Sprig of Acacia

Death and the Skull as the central motif, with the Tree in a secondary part. From The True Masonic Chart, 1819.

Jeremy L. Cross, compiler; engraved by Amos Doolittle, 1826 printing, first published 1819. Engraving.

No known copyright restrictions, 1826 printing · Web copy 728 by 1400 px · Internet Archive, Library of Congress copy, leaf 45

What is happening

Symbolica, 2026 Plate 25 of the chart, in the Master Mason degree. Cross's monitor, printed in the same volume, gives the lecture that explains each emblem on the plate in turn; it is the written key to this picture and is not yet quoted here.

Key · 2 motifs

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

  1. 1Death and the Skullcentral motif as it reads here: The Setting Maul, the Spade, the Coffin and the Sprig of Acacia
  2. 2The Treesecondary motif

The picture

A setting maul and a spade crossed above, a coffin marked with a star below, and a sprig of acacia growing beside it. By eye

Not yet decoded: the key and the sourced notes come with the entry. Until then the motifs above are tagged by eye and said so.

Also carrying Death and the Skull

11 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

the Tree

This is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about it.

In the same series

The True Masonic Chart, 1819

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Library of Congress copy, leaf 45
Rights
No known copyright restrictions, 1826 printing
Restoration
None. A 728 by 1400 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing retouched, nothing upscaled.
Series
The True Masonic Chart, 1819
Artist
Jeremy L. Cross, masonic lecturer of New Hampshire and Connecticut, 1783 to 1860, who compiled the chart and its monitor; the plates were engraved by Amos Doolittle of New Haven
Titled here
The Setting Maul, the Spade, the Coffin and the Sprig of Acacia. Internet Archive catalogues it as: The Setting Maul, the Spade, the Coffin and the Sprig of Acacia, from The True Masonic Chart, New Haven 1826
Checked
the Internet Archive item metadata, 4 September 2026: Cross as author, New Haven, 1826, contributed by the Library of Congress, which states it is unaware of any copyright restrictions. Doolittle's signature is engraved on some plates and the attribution of the rest to him follows the book's own title. What is quoted was read off the plate; the monitor's lectures are not yet quoted. Not seen in the hand.
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This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.

Cite
Symbolica, “The Setting Maul, the Spade, the Coffin and the Sprig of Acacia”, Jeremy L. Cross, compiler; engraved by Amos Doolittle, 1826 printing, first published 1819. thesymbolica.com/work/the-setting-maul-the-spade-the-coffin-and-the-sprig-of-acacia/