Coins, Tokens, Historical Medals, Paper Money and Numismatic Books

Theatre and Entertainment, TICKETS and PASSES, Theatre and Entertainment, OXFORD STREET, The Pantheon, Italian Opera, First Theatre, 1790=1, plated copper, front view of the Pantheon, rev. italian opera pantheon, box no. 48, named (Duke of Dorset, F), 34mm, 16.26g (W 376; cf. D & W 33/350-1). Numerous test marks and scrapes, otherwise better than fine, scarce; pierced for suspension £300-360

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Tickets and Passes of London from the David Young Collection.

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Provenance: Bt T. Millett September 2007.

John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, KG (1745-99), Knole House, Sevenoaks; educ. Westminster School; MP for Kent 1768-9; succeeded to the title 1769; Lord Lieutenant of Kent 1769-97; enjoyed a reputation as a fine cricketer and late in life became one of the first members of the Marylebone Cricket Club; served as the English ambassador to Paris, 1784-9 and witnessed the French Revolution on the streets of the city first-hand; a notorious womaniser, he entertained a string of mistresses including Giovanna Zanerini, the principal ballerina at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket, who went with him to Paris.

Opened in 1772, the Pantheon, or Winter Ranelagh, became a fashionable concert venue in the 1780s and was equipped as an opera house in 1789, but was destroyed by fire in 1792. Rebuilt in 1795, it was converted into a theatre in 1812, but closed in 1814. Today the site is occupied by Marks & Spencer