Fan

The King's Theatre, Haymarket, originally called the Queen's Theatre after Queen Anne, was built by Sir John Vanbrugh, opening in 1705. Handel's oratorio Estherwas sung here for the first time in England.

The fan shows how going to the theatre proved your social standing. Here we can see how 'subscribers' (people who rented boxes for a season at the theatre) could include Mrs Fitzherbert, mistress of the Prince of Wales, and other important people like the Duke of Gloucester. To prove their right to the box, they held ivory discs or tokens which - for this important venue - were obtained from a bank in Pall Mall. Things were about to change however; when this theatre was rebuilt after a fire in 1789, a less fashionable season was introduced, where boxes could be purchased by the general public, and seats in the upper tier cost a guinea each.