Chambers Langston Hall & Co Token (1794)
18th Century Lace Tokens.
Of the Tokens used in the 17th century I have already spoken. At the close of the 18th century there was again a most inconvenient shortage of small change, and tradesmen once more began to issue tokens. Unlike the old tokens which were small and thin, the later tokens were the size and thickenss of a present day florin. A well known example has on one side "Lace manufactury" with a representation of a woman seated under a tree making lace; on the other, PAY AT LEIGHTON BERKHAMSTED OR LONDON. 1794 - and the figure of a sheep; on the edge, "CHAMBERS LANGSTON HALL & CO. Most of these are of copper, but Mr. Arthur Brown (a collector) of Stamford Hill, London, N., has one of silver.
Other tokens with the same Obverse have for Reverse, "PAYABLE AT JOHN ROOKS NORWICH x x x " or, "PAYABLE AT W. GOLDSMITHS BRAINTREE ESSEX.".
Another token is figured and lettered as follows:
obverse. Women seated under a tree making lace. Legend: LACE MANUFACTORY, 1795
reverse. On a scroll in indented letters: MUSLINS IRISH CLOTH HOSE &c. Legend: MOORE NO 116 GREAT PORTLAND STREET
Edge diagonaly milled, in some instances coarsely and in others finely.
Of the Chambers's tokens one ton were struck and of Moore's half a ton. Mr. S. H. Hamer, who supplied t his information says, "There were also a few struck which had an edge-reading not connection with the general design of the token, viz.: PAYABLE AT I. JORDANS DRAPER, GOSPORT."
Thomas Wright, "The Romance of the Lace Pillow"
18th century tokens (from Dalton & Hamer's The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century)
Leighton Buzzard 1794: Dalton and Hamer list five different varieties of this token. They all have identical images and legends, but different edges. They are noted as having been engraved by Wyon and struck by Peter Kempson of Birmingham. They were all issued by Chambers, Langston, Hall & Co., a haberdasher of 46, GutterLane, Cheapside, London. The different edge varieties as follows (I have used the catalogue numbers to identify them:
3: Milled edge
3a: Edge inscription "PAYABLE AT W. GOLDSMITHS BRAINTREE ESSEX".
3b: Edge inscription "PAYABLE AT JOHN ROOK NORWICH".
3c: Edge inscription "CHAMBERS LANGSTON HALL & CO.". This variety was also struck in silver.
3d: Plain edge.
Dalton & Hamer's The Provincial Token-Coinage of the 18th Century
On October 22, 2009, I purchased the astonishing example of the Chambers token pictured above from dealer Richard Gladdle on Ebay. It has a wonderful provinance:
The Collection of an MP, SNC November-December 1922 (12650)
(SNC is Spink's Numismatic Circular, the reference is to their price list)
W. Longman Collection, Glendining Auction, 12-13 March 1958, lot 1 (part)
(Longman was a famous collector between the wars, he wrote "Tokens of the Eighteenth Century connected with Booksellers &
Bookmakers" in 1916.)
N.T. Bagshawe Collection, Glendining Auction, 3 November 2000, lot 771, recté DH 3c; bt R. Gladdle September 2001;
(Bagshawe was a collector in the 40s and 50s and founded the Luton Museum and for forty years or so this coin was in the Museum on loan. When he died his son had all the stuff back and sold them in 2000.)
R. Brown Collection 2009.
(Brown was the Brown in 'Forman Brown' i.e., the owners of Southern Comfort and Jack Daniels. He died in 2006.)
One might speculate given its appearance that this is an example of the 'silver' coins mentioned in the above histories. Frankly, I don't think there ever were any cast in silver - not one example has ever come to light. I think the reference might be to this coin, with is a heavy copper gilt. A thick copper sheet swaged over the blank. It is a very high quality product, probably only a few produced. And just as we could add another line to the provenance (Dr. L. S. Waters, Los Alamos, New Mexico, October 2008- ), the impossible happened. The coin was shipped registered mail to me from England, and the tracking record at the post office read:
Inbound International Arrival, October 31, 2009, 11:02 am, ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)
Origin Post is preparing Shipment
The coin was never seen again.
It has been registered as stolen on every site I can find, the police have been contacted, and the Post Office has been searching (4 other coins from the same dealer disappeared the same way at the same time). If you come across this token, please contact me or your local police. It has a distinctive marker, a chip in the copper at the edge just under the 'ER' in 'Berkhamsted'.
This is a tragic loss for the lace collecting and lacemaking community.
The more ordinary copper Chambers tokens are fairly easy to find and come up regularly for auction. Ones in good condition are less common. My example below has the edge inscription "CHAMBERS LANGSTON HALL & CO." Weight is 10.1 grams, diameter 2.9 cm.
first posted 3/27/2009 |
