British Tokens, Tickets and Passes

Theatre and Entertainment, HOLBORN, Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, 1695, copper, laureate bust of William III right, rev. for the pit above date, 33mm, 12.28g (W 355, this piece illustrated; Young, Theatres & Circus, p.61, this piece). Die flaw on obverse, fine, a great rarity; very few specimens extant £400-£600

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: Tim Millett FPL 2008 (49); bt May 2008.

Lincoln’s Inn Fields Theatre, originally Lisle’s tennis court in Portugal street, was first opened as a theatre in 1661. Reverting to a tennis court, the building was re-opened as a theatre in 1695 by a group of actors led by Thomas Betterton (1635-1710), but finally closed in 1704, following which Betterton and his troupe transferred to the new theatre in the Haymarket built by the architect John Vanbrugh