British Trade Tokens, Tickets and Passes, Numismatic Books

Parks and Gardens, London, Lambeth, Vauxhall Gardens, uniface silver, unsigned [by R. Yeo after W. Hogarth], Arion holding lyre, riding on dolphin, scrolled border, back named (J. Fox Esqr), 40 x 34mm, 7.70g (D & W 83/270; MG 672). Minor marks and staining on back, otherwise very fine, old dusty tone, very rare; with integral loop for suspension £500-700

Vauxhall Gardens originated as the New Spring Garden, opened early in Charles II’s reign. In 1728/9 the management of it was taken over by the entrepreneur Jonathan Tyers (†1767), descended from a family of Bermondsey leather-sellers. In the 35 years that followed the official re-opening of the gardens in 1732 they enjoyed immense popularity among the fashionable elite of the day. General day admission was one shilling. Annual silver season tickets, bearing a variety of designs by William Hogarth and engraved by Richard Yeo, cost from between a guinea and two guineas, depending on the literary source/s consulted. The Tyers family continued to run the gardens until 1822 but they were closed in June 1859 and the land sold for property development