I need help dating this robe/coat?

[Brooke Loveless]

I am trying to find out any info on this beauty regarding age and use.

 

[Jonathan]

It's one of those lodge regalia robes - masonic, orangemen, knights of columbus, moose.... something like that. The robes are done in an old style but were made for years looking the same. They were usually done by one company in Ohio -- forgotten the name of that company at the moment.

 

[EndlessAlley]

Was it the M. C. Lilley Co.? If so here a link to a PDF from the Columbus Public Library about the company. The company was founded in 1860. In 1933 the company was bought out by Henderson-Ames of Kalamazoo, MI and the name was changed to Lilley-Ames.

http://www.columbusmemory.org/sites/columbusmemory.org/files/M_C_Lilley.pdf

 

[cmpollack]

I have a helmet that pretty closely matches yours--it's a Knights of Pythias helmet made by Stilson, and it's marked inside that it was for the order's "conductor". I love these type of items--your robe is wonderful!

 

[morning-glorious]

I also had this coat in red, mine was from an Odd Fellows Lodge and had a "C.E. Ward Co." label inside. Other companies that made these type of masonic coats were Ward Stilson and Henderson Ames. I bought a collection of them from an IOOF lodge that was closing and mine had the "roles" labels inside too, such as "Guard," "Inner Guard," "High Priest," "David," etc. Very cool stuff.

Jen