Special Collections

Sold on 27 August 2020

1 part

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Tickets and Passes of London from the David Young Collection

David Young

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Lot

№ 637

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27 August 2020

Hammer Price:
£100

Gambling, CORNHILL, Richardson, Goodluck & Co, New State Lottery, 5 September 1803, printed publicity sheet detailing the Scheme, offering 24,000 tickets at a total value of £210,000, prizes to be paid two months after the drawing ends, in full, or on demand, the verso detailing the Capital Prizes sold by the firm in 1802, 220 x 140mm, together with a wooden printer’s block depicting the obv. of their Halfpenny, 1795, 45mm; Pidding & Co, State Lottery of 8,000 Tickets, 4 March 1814, printed advertisement, engraving of actress above a 14-line verse, 188 x 112mm; Thomas Bish, a One-Sixteenth Share of the First [Lottery] for 1815, 7 November 1815, no.11265, printed in red and black, 173 x 72mm [4]. First fine, others very fine £30-£40

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 April 2006.

Richardson, Goodluck & Co, corner of Bank Buildings, Cornhill and King’s Mews, Charing Cross; Pidding & Co, 1 Cornhill and 3 Charing Cross; Thomas Bish, 4 Cornhill and 9 Charing Cross. Despite being called the state lottery, it was privatised. Contractors, often companies involved in stockbroking and banking, would bid for the right to run the lottery at a profit to themselves. Companies with names such as Bish, Richardson and Goodluck and Hazard and Burne would offer lottery tickets in advertisements that would dominate the front pages of newspapers and boast about the number of winning tickets they had sold. The Richardson company had paid £50 to a Mrs Goodluck for the right to use her name. Although based in London, to achieve nationwide distribution they would appoint agents all over the country. Booksellers were preferred, as it was thought that this added to their brand, but high class grocers, goldsmiths and watchmakers were also acceptable, chosen as places where the poor would not go. Lotteries of this type were declared illegal in 1826