British Tokens, Tickets and Passes

Theatre and Entertainment, CLERKENWELL, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, 1803, bone, sadlers wells around date, rev. named (Mr Andrews, Pit), 35mm, 3.74g (W 410, this piece; Young, Theatres & Circus, p.90, this piece; ). ‘X’ cancellation cross below name, fine to very fine, exceptionally rare £400-£500

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: F.S. Cokayne Collection; bt T. Millett February 2013.

Robert C. Andrews (fl. 1789-1819, †c. 1825), artist, was first employed at Sadler’s Wells in 1794, eventually becoming the theatre’s principal scene painter. Many of his original sketches for pantomimes and aquadramas are now held by the Garrick Club. Described by a contemporary as ‘a short man, but a Giant in the Art’, Andrews became a shareholder of Sadler’s Wells in 1802, but sold his holding at the close of the 1811-12 season. When the manager Charles Dibdin left Sadler’s Wells in 1818, Andrews resigned at the same time and the following year joined the Theatre Royal, Drury lane. The original Sadler’s Wells theatre, named after Richard Sadler, Charles II’s surveyor of highways and the owner of a medicinal well discovered in 1683, opened in 1740. It was replaced by a stone building in 1766