Secret Society Badge

This oval enamel plaque features a central scene of two figures transporting a hunted stag, surrounded by an ornate decorative frame. Above the scene, a ribbon unfurls with the text 'AVOID RIDICULE', while the base of the frame is crossed with a hunting spear and a sword. The delicate monochrome lines against the white enamel ground create a sharp, printed appearance typical of 18th-century decorative metalwork.

The imagery draws upon the biblical story of Joshua and Caleb carrying a cluster of grapes (Numbers 13:23), but replaces the fruit with a stag—a common iconographic shift in secular or fraternal orders of the 18th century. It reflects the era's propensity for adopting religious or legendary visual tropes for the purpose of symbolic membership within private societies or clubs.