The Bristol Old Vic has vowed to honour a centuries-old policy and provide free tickets for every show to the new owner of a silver token dated to 1766 that is being sold at auction.
Only 50 tokens were minted for the original shareholders at the theatre and entitled the owner to watch every performance.
The Bristol Old Vic was originally known as the Theatre Royal and was built on King Street between 1764 and 1766. It opened on 30 May that year.
The inscription on the token – ticket No 35 – states: “The proprietor of this ticket is entitled to the sight of every performance to be exhibited in this house.” The reverse reads: “King Street, Bristol Theatre / May 30, 1766.”
Fifty original shareholders, or proprietors, who each raised £50 – a substantial sum for the 18th century – to fund the construction of the theatre received one of the silver tokens in return.
It is now being sold at Henry Aldridge & Son auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire, which expects the token to sell for between £1,500 and £2,500.
The Bristol Old Vic said: “We famously uphold our policy for all the tokens that have been authenticated.” It added: “If it is indeed authentic, we will honour our policy and provide free tickets to the owner.”
A spokesperson for the auction house told the BBC: “It is believed 20 of the coins have survived but only a handful of these have ever been offered up for auction. The vendors are from Bristol and have always treasured the item as an important piece of local history.”
Over the years, tickets were swapped, sold, lost, found and even forged, while extensive records at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection have helped trace the origins of some of the coins. There is a record of one ticket being offered for sale for £30 in 1791.
Records show that ticket No 35 was given to shareholder William Jones in 1766, and that by 1815 the coin had found its way into the possession of John Wadham, a prominent Bristol blue glassmaker. Wadham was the owner of Frenchay Manor, which still stands, and a director of the Bristol Floating Harbour Company in 1820.
It was then passed down to Wadham’s son, Thomas, who became High Sheriff of Bristol in 1843 and established Winterbourne school. Other prominent silver ticket owners were the Smyth family of Ashton Court.
