The Masonic Pitcher from Canton, China
In Canton harbor, Captain Plaskett ordered a Masonic pitcher from Chinese artisans. It survives him.
While trading in Canton, China in the early 1800s, Captain Joseph William Plaskett commissioned a special Masonic pitcher to be made by Chinese artisans.
This was during the golden age of the China Trade, when Nantucket whaling captains would sell their sperm oil in Chinese ports and return with tea, silk, and porcelain. The pitcher, decorated with Masonic symbols, became a family heirloom.
The pitcher and silhouettes of Joseph William and his wife Persis Plaskett were displayed in the “Loan Exhibition of Heirlooms” at Nantucket in August 1935. These silhouettes remain exhibits in the Nantucket Whaling Museum today — tangible artifacts of a Plaskett who sailed halfway around the world.