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Thomas Halliday - Proprietor’s Ticket to the Sydney Gardens

Proprietor’s Ticket to the Sydney Gardens

Thomas Halliday

Date: circa 1800

Place Made: England

Materials & Techniques: Die-stamped silver

Dimensions: Diameter 3.4 cm

Accession Number: The Holburne Museum, J 250

Printable Version (opens in a new window)

 

Opposite side to the token

This is a token, the same shape and size as a coin, which the people who owned the exclusive Sydney Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in Bath used to get into the gardens, and enjoy all the attractions for a whole season.

It is made of solid silver and was made in the following way:

  1. A designer drew two images, one for the front (the obverse), the other for the back (the reverse).
  2. An engraver transferred it to a piece of steel the same size:  he drew the image on with paint then took a sharp tool called a burin and scratched along the line, working in reverse so that the image came out the right way round when printed.
  3. Each plate was attached to a large chunk of steel, turning it into a 'die' which could then be fixed to a die-stamping machine:  they faced each other horizontally.
  4. A lump of silver was placed on the lower die and the top die came down heavily on it, pressing the silver into the lines on both dies.
  5. When the dies were opened up, the edge of the token was trimmed and rolled against a ridged surface, giving it a ‘milled’ edge.
Sydney gardens

The token was probably made in Birmingham where they specialised in small jewellery work, as the dies are stamped with the marks of Thomas Halliday, the medal-maker who made the die-face, and Gibson, the firm who made the metal base. No-one knows who designed the image but it may have been copied from a print sold as a souvenir.

 

 

 

Teachers' Information

This is an object typical of the Industrial Revolution - in full swing by 1800. The techniques of die-stamping and printing are two of the Revolution’s key processes, enabling what felt like a miracle at the time - infinite, accurate repetition of one object. Birmingham was one of the most important centres for the development of technical ideas and business, the home of Matthew Boulton the metalworker and of a whole host of small businesses.

The Sydney Gardens was modelled on the famous Vauxhall Gardens in London, and its centre, the Sydney Hotel, was begun in 1796 - part visitors’ centre, part country club. It had a bandstand, performance space, a walk around the edge for carriages or riders, swings, and a Labyrinth or maze. This silver ticket is a sign of the exclusive nature of the Gardens, and was checked by the servant on the gate - a little ‘sentry box’ still stands there today (used to sell ice creams). In the 19th century pleasure gardens went out of fashion, and the Hotel eventually got a new life as a museum, reopening as the Holburne Museum in 1916.

Activities

1. Which part of the process do your pupils think would be most fun to do? Which would take the longest time?

2. Do your pupils notice anything about the number on the reverse of the ticket?
The number has been engraved AFTER the token was stamped: the depth of the engraving is different. This was very sensible, because if you were turning out lots of tokens you would have had to engrave a separate die for each one which would be very expensive.

3. Where would we use a season ticket today? How do today’s season tickets differ from this one?

4. Your pupils could design a season ticket like the Sydney Gardens one for your nearest park / football ground / music venue, using the same format.  Draw it on to aluminium foil to see the silver effect.