Grand State Lottery, (For the Encouragement of Domestic Industry). Providence, 1825.

.pro-gallery-wix-wrapper {display: block !important;} .pro-gallery-wix-wrapper .gallery-item-container {opacity: 1 !important; display: block !important;}

A broadside announcing a Grand State Lottery in Providence, 1825, with a ticket

Name: A broadside announcing a Grand State Lottery in Providence, 1825, with a ticket
SKU: 195

Price

€ 350,00

Broadside announcing a Grand State Lottery in Providence, Rhode Island (October 14, 1825), listing 12,120 prizes (and 22,100 blanks), totaling $111,215, with a top prize of $25,000. Accompanied by an original matching quarter ticket (6.8 × 16.4 cm).

Lotteries had been held in Rhode Island since at least 1744, when the colony first used them to finance public works. In the absence of banks, lotteries provided a vital source of credit and revenue, fueling local economies while enriching management companies, ticket agents, newspapers, and town governments.

By the 1830s, corruption and irregularities (grand prizes were rarely drawn) eroded public trust, and lotteries were finally abolished in Rhode Island in 1846. Surviving ephemera from this era are scarce, especially when paired with an original ticket.

This particular lottery broadside is not recorded in DeSimone’s List of Rhode Island Lotteries (18th and 19th Centuries), making it an especially rare and desirable piece of early American ephemera.

Title

By authority of the State of Rhode-Island. Under the superintendence of managers appointed by law. Grand State Lottery, (For the Encouragement of Domestic Industry) Third Class-New Series, wil positively be drawn in Providence, on the 14th of October next.

Providence, S. & M. Allen & Co., August 6, 1825.

Physical Description

Broadside (24,5 x 20 cm). In very good condition, with some faint creases and foxing. With a manuscript note at the lower margin: "For sale at the store of the Columbian M[?]".

References

Cf. Bartlett, History of Lotteries and the Lottery System in Rhode Island. University of Rhode Island, 2003; DeSimone, A List of Rhode Island Lotteries (18th and 19th Centuries). Bridgetown, 2002.