Bristol Old Vic Theatre - An 18th century George III silver ...

Hammer

£8,600

Bristol Old Vic Theatre - An 18th century George III silver token for Bristol Theatre, King Street. The token inscribed to read Bristol Theatre, King Street, May 30 1766. The obverse engraved ‘No. 31 The Proprietor of this Ticket is Entitled to the sight of Every Performance to be Exhibited in the House'.

The token was originally being issued by the Bristol Old Vic theatre, allowing its owner unlimited free entry to any production. The fifty tickets were minted, and given to the fifty shareholders who had each raised £50 to fund the construction of the theatre in 1766. The original shareholders of these tickets insisted that they could be loaned or traded which led to great difficulty for the Theatre managers to keep track of who was entitled to enter the performances at no cost. The original owner of the token being theatre shareholder, Daniel Harson, Collector of Customs in the port of Bristol and formerly a dissenting minister from 1758 until his death in 1779. In 1816 the ticket and share of the theatre was held by John Palmer who was assigned his shares (and presumably the ticket) on 15 July 1793. The ticket and share had previously been in the hands of Antony Palmer Collings who had been the executor of the Original Proprietor, Daniel Harson, Collector of Customs. The share associated with the ticket was held by various persons in the 19th century to include Theatre Lessee’s James Henry Chute in 1861 and Andrew Melville in 1887. In 1925 the Final Dividend List shows ticket 31 as being owned by A A Levy-Langfield wherein it stayed in the family until being sold at auction in 2009 to the current owner.