Entry ticket to the Fonthill Abbey sale 1823

n.p. n.p.. 1823.

An entry ticket to the Fonthill Abbey Sale of 1823. Printed on card. 192x122mm. The image on the ticket is of the Eastern Towers of the Abbey with the Central Tower behind framed in a mandorla around which is written "This Ticket will admit two visitors on any two days during the view and is not transferable". Surrounding this central image is a gothic pattern of quatrefoils framing a bird. The ticket was engraved by Thomas Higham after the drawing by the architect Stedman Whitwell. The ticket is signed by H. Phillips (the auctioneer responsible for the sale) and numbered 3143. In very good condition. There were three issues of tickets to the Fonthill Sale. The first, limited to one hundred, admitted only one person per ticket, the second admitted two (this is one of those) and the third, three.
The Fonthill sale is legendary. So popular that 72,000 catalogues were printed and with tickets so hot that three editions were issued. Out of money, William Beckford had, in 1822, instructed James Christie (son of the founder of the auction house) to conduct a sale of his fabulous folly, Fonthill Abbey. Intoxicated by the interest, Beckford went behind Christie's back and sold the estate to John Farquhar. The 1823 sale of the contents, was therefore carried out on the instructions of the new owner with Beckford, entertainingly, buying back pieces offloaded a year earlier. With Christie out of the picture, Harry Phillips, who had left Christie's to found his own firm in 1796, took over. Unusually for an auctioneer, Phillips couldn't resist a bit of sharp practice and he bolstered the Fonthill sale by introducing items from other sellers, passing them off as Beckford's. In 1825, the central tower of Fonthill collapsed, Farquhar sold off what he could and then died six months later of apoplexy. A Gothick tale indeed.