admission-ticket
- Museum number
- MG.688
- Description
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Bronze admission ticket. (whole)
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Lyre between two oak-branches and inscription. (reverse)
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Inscription, in two lines, within wreaths and spray of roses and other flowers. (obverse)
- Production date
- 1828
- Dimensions
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Height: 1.26 inches
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- According to Wroth, Numismatic Chronicle XVIII 3rd Series, London 1898. Essay III, 'Tickets of Vauxhall Gardens' pp.73-93, and Davis and Waters, 'Tickets and Passes of Great Britain and Ireland' (1922), this object was used at a "Spanish Fete", held for the benefit of foreign refugees at Vauxhall Gardens in London in 1828.
There is, however, considerable evidence to suggest that the object was not issued for use in London at Vauxhall Gardens but, as inscribed on the token, the Parque Argentino in Buenos Aires, Argentina (situated between the present streets of Avenida Cordoba, Calle Vignata, Calle Uraguay and Calle Parana). This was a pleasure garden on the pattern of London's Vauxhall, opened by an English business syndicate in 1827 on land owned by James Wilde.
By this time Vauxhall Gardens in London was officially called 'The Royal Gardens, Vauxhall', by permission of King George IV: the proprietors were immensely proud of this title, using it wherever and whenever they could; thus the use of the bare word 'Vauxhall' on any public document at this date would be very unlikely. Furthermore, there appears to be little explanation why the wording 'Parque Argentino' should appear on a ticket for a fete at Vauxhall Gardens in aid of Spanish and Italian refugees.
Another reason for doubting Wroth's attribution to Vauxhall Gardens in London is that there was indeed a Grand Dress Fete for the Spanish and Italian Refugees there on 8th July, but not in 1828. The documented fete was held in 1830 and is recorded in an advertisement in Wroth's own collection of Vauxhall memorabilia preserved in the Museum of London Library, Volume III, p.53.
See also Coke, David and Borg, Alan. Vauxhall Gardens, a history: Published for Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by the Yale University Press, 2011, (New Haven and London, 2011), p.409.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1907
- Department
- Coins and Medals
- Registration number
- MG.688
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: G.688
