Overall: 38cm (15in) x 35cm (14in)
Stained ivory. A set of seven late 18th century stained ivory gambling counters from Brooks’s Club, St. James’s Street, London, denominated in 1/2 Guinea, Guinea, 5 Guineas, 10 Guineas, 25 Guineas, 50 Guineas and 100 Guineas tokens.
Mounted over a printed note inscribed: ‘Counters used at Brooks's Club from its foundation in 1764 until early in the present Century. The following paragraph appears in the Minutes of the 20th March 1862, 'It was resolved that the Master of the Club should not be bound in future to provide Counters or to be answerable for the debts of losers at Cards'. It is, however, believed that the Counters had not been used for many years before this date’. Framed and glazed.
The present set of gambling counters are identical to a set hanging in the hall of Brooks’s Club in St. James’s Street, London. The retirement of the club’s counters in the 1860s no doubt reflected the moral outlook of its Victorian membership. In its Georgian heyday Brooks’s was known as place where its politically aligned members could indulge to the full in the pursuits of drinking, eating and gambling. Moreover the main attraction of Brooks's was its gambling rooms. At several tables in one, members would stake fortunes on whist and hazard. Gambling all night was commonplace. When the stakes far exceeded any ordinary expenses, all the club accounts were commonly deducted from winnings, so that no bills were rendered to members. Numerous eccentric bets of a sporting, political of personal nature were recorded in the club’s infamous ‘betting books’. According to Wikipedia ‘One extraordinary entry from 1785 is "Ld. Cholmondeley has given two guineas to Ld. Derby, to receive 500 Gs whenever his lordship f**** a woman in a balloon one thousand yards from the Earth.” There is no further indication that the bet was paid, or even how they would check it if it was claimed.’
Ivory Exemption Registration Number: QEQ4Q5ZG