Title continues: "Comprising a sketch of Cryptic origins and development in America; a history of the Grand Council, Royal and Select Masters of Illinois, from its organization to the fiftieth annual assembly, in the year 1902; biographical notes and portraits of distinguished craftsmen during that period, and an account of the exercises at the semi-centennial banquet held in connection with Fiftieth Annual Assembly of Grand Council at Chicago, October Twenty-ninth Nineteen Hundred and Two." Cryptic Masonry is the second part of the York Rite system of Masonic degrees. A Council is similar in many ways to a Masonic Lodge in that it has officers and a ritual degree system. Note bookplate designed by James Jervis Blomfield (1879-1951), Canadian artist and designer best known for his design of the coat of arms of Vancouver. The small label for John M. Watkins suggests a small store of little or no importance but Watkins Books is still in business in London's Cecil Court. Founded in Charing Cross, Watkins moved to 21 Cecil Court in 1901 where it has been in business ever since. It is now London's oldest esoteric bookshop.
