In the early 19th century theatre tickets were not printed on paper unless the performance was a Benefit, when the beneficiary received a percentage of the profits. For everyday performances tickets were in the form of brass or copper metal checks purchased by patrons at the box office and surrendered as they entered the auditorium. Shareholders in some theatres even received beautifully chased and engraved silver tickets which they kept, allowing them free entry for a specified number of years. Ivory tickets, or bones, were introduced in the late 1780s and were given to actors as free passes for certain nights. Opera season subscribers at King’s Theatre also had ivories or bones which they bought at a banking house in Pall Mall, inscribed with their names and the season. Unlike the metal checks, these were kept by their owners for the season and scrutinised when they got to the theatre. They usually had a hole pierced in them through which a ribbon was inserted so the subscriber hung it on to his lapel, much as a cardboard pass to a race meeting enclosure is today.

This ivory ticket is for the Duke of York's box at the King's Theatre in London's Haymarket for the 1804/5 opera season. It shows that he had Pit Box 4 which seated six people, so would have contained six arm-chairs. Six passes like this would have been issued, the details engraved, and the recesses filled with dark red ink. Originally this ivory would have been round or oblong but it has been carved into a quatrefoil shape. The Duke of York in 1804 was Prince Frederick (1763-1827), the second son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He was commander-in-chief of the British army, immortalised in nursery rhyme as 'the grand old Duke of York' because of his various unsuccessful military exploits.