British Tokens, Tickets and Passes

Gardens, SOUTHWARK, Finch’s Grotto Gardens, 1764, uniface brass, the grotto and date, 25mm, 5.65g (W 1317, this piece illustrated; D & W 72/195; Young, Gardens, p.84, this piece). Good fine, extremely rare £300-£360

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 (57); bt May 2008.

Finch’s Grotto Gardens, St George’s Fields, Southwark, were based on a property inherited by the herald painter Thomas Finch (†October 1770) from an aunt. Finch opened the attraction on 17 May 1760, which centred on a grotto built over a mineral spring. Engaging those performing artistes mostly in the decline of their careers, the venture was not destined to endure and, inherited by his widow Grace, it had closed by 1775; the adjoining house was demolished and a workhouse built on the site