British Tokens, Tickets and Passes

Theatre and Entertainment, HAYMARKET, Theatre Royal, The Author’s Benefit: Pasquin, At ye Theatre in ye Hay-Market, an engraved print for H. Fielding after W. Hogarth [1736], 257 x 213mm. About very fine; probably a later copy £20-£30

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 November 2003.

The ticket depicts a stage scene with seven performers, a dog and a cat, and in the background two tightrope walkers accompanied by an ape; within a frame, a satyr on either side. The play was a brutal satire by Henry Fielding (1707-54), set against the government under Sir Robert Walpole, who retaliated by introducing the Theatre Licensing Act of 1737, effectively ending Fielding’s West End career