S.W.Fores No. 14, for Self, Knightly Puff, Warning Puff, Racer Puff, Horney Puff & Moonshine Puff, 2 Pence, 12 April 1819, promising to pay ‘Aldn Puff & Deputy Puff or Bearer, when Lottery-Puffs shall be swallowed as eagerly as Pastry-Puff by the good people of the United Kingdom and when Lottery Insurers & Swindlers shall deserve the name of Gentleman’, signed by Old Tom Puff and Young Tom Puff, with a vignette showing the Royal Exchange and a losing lottery ticket, and labelled ‘Vagabundarum sodalitium’ and ‘You may gain but you cannot lose! Puff. Only 1428 Blanks to one Prize above Five Hundred Pounds!’, about extremely fine £100-£150

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Sir David Kirch Collection of Skit Notes.

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Collection

This is another protest against unscrupulous lottery organisers. The vignette of a blank piece of paper illustrates the origin of the idiom ‘drawing a blank’.