British Trade Tokens, Tickets and Passes

LONDON, Piccadilly, St James’s Hall, uniface brass, st james’s hall, 33mm, 10.97g (W 511, and p.69, this piece illustrated; D & W –). About very fine, rare £80-£100

W.J. Noble Collection, Part II, Noble Numismatics Pty Auction 61B (Melbourne), 3-4 August 1999, lot 742 (part) [from Baldwin 1992, when sold with a now-lost ticket, perhaps Cokayne, indicating it was purchased in Richmond, Surrey, in September 1927]; D. Young Collection, DNW Auction 147, 12-14 June 2018, lot 1761 [from R. Gladdle November 2004]

St James’s Hall, designed by Owen Jones, the interior decorator of the Crystal Palace, opened on 25 March 1858. Owned by the music publishers Chappell & Co and Cramer & Co, the venue later became the home of the Christy Minstrels and the Philharmonic Society and witnessed some of the last public readings of his works by Charles Dickens. The Hall was demolished in February 1905 and the Piccadilly Hotel built on the site.