Early 20th C. Odd Fellows Carved Hourglass in Gold and Silver Paint ledger drawing and with a bit research

and with a bit research I've learned that it is a keystone indicative of the Royal Arch Masonry (also known as "Capitular Masonry")--the first part of the American York Rite system of Masonic degrees and said by many to be "the most beautiful degree" in all of Freemasonry

parenthetically described as chimney sweeps--with the hand-written quote on the back of the paper making one wonder whether the drawing portrays friends or lovers lost

painting in very good condition

which is not very good but gives a sense of what active workers these two are

Early 20th C. Odd Fellows Carved Hourglass in Gold and Silver Paint ledger drawing and with a bit researchWhat better object, and symbol, and reminder (!) than an hourglass? This is an earlyish 20th century fraternal one, probably Odd Fellows, found in Upstate New York, carved of wood and clad in its original silver and gold paint, nicely mellowed now. There are earlier, much more finely carved (and very precious) examples of these out there, but I like the simplicity and sort of matter of factness of this one as if wanting to be very direct in