The Mysteries of Freemasonry [1886] Limited Edition Museum Print (19.5 x 27.5)

Les mystères de la franc-maçonnerie (The Mysteries of Freemasonry) (1886) Limited Edition Museum Print

• Edition size of 100
• 19.5" x 27.5" on heavy cardstock
• Reproduced from one of only three known copies of the original poster (located in The Century Guild Museum of Art in Los Angeles)
• Blindstamped with the Century Guild seal

About this edition print:

Les mystères de la franc-maçonnerie (The Mysteries of Freemasonry) is one of the most coveted and peculiar artworks in the Century Guild Museum of Art collection. The image was printed in 1886 for a book release by the legendary hoaxer Leo Taxíl, where he "revealed" that the prime mover of the Masonic Temple was none other than Satan himself, depicted here as Baphomet.

Posters advertising books in the 19th century were generally published in very small quantities. While some sources claim that only one original poster from 1886 survived to the 21st century, our research has located three in existence–but it seems highly unlikely that there would be a fourth.

About the Book:

"The public made me what I am; the arch-liar of the period," confessed Taxil, "for when I first commenced to write against the Masons my object was amusement pure and simple. The crimes I laid at their door were so grotesque, so impossible, so widely exaggerated, I thought everybody would see the joke and give me credit for originating a new line of humor. But my readers wouldn't have it so; they accepted my fables as gospel truth, and the more I lied for the purpose of showing that I lied, the more convinced became they that I was a paragon of veracity."

- quote from an interview with Leo Taxil, National Magazine, an Illustrated American Monthly (1906)