Master of the Ceremonies Ball ticket Tuesday 6th February 1821

ANONYMOUS. Master of the Ceremonies Ball. Late Kingston-Rooms. Tuesday 6th February, 1821.
 
Engraved ball ticket, 120 x 80 mm, depicting the Kingston Rooms engulfed in flames beneath the words "Master of the Ceremonies Ball", with the date Tuesday 6th February 1821 below. Light age toning and handling, with a tide mark to the lower right corner; mounting residue and manuscript marks to verso. The engraving remains dark and well defined. About very good.
 
An attractive Regency ball ticket produced in the aftermath of the destruction of Bath's celebrated Kingston Rooms, also known as the Lower Assembly Rooms. The building was almost entirely destroyed by fire on 21 December 1820, less than seven weeks before the ball advertised here. The dramatic engraved vignette depicts the rooms themselves ablaze, with the word "BALL" emerging prominently from the smoke. 
 
The Kingston Rooms had been one of the principal centres of fashionable social life in Bath. Balls and entertainments there were regulated by formal rules, while subscribers possessed the right to vote in the election of the Master of the Ceremonies, an important figure responsible for overseeing the city's organised social gatherings and their etiquette.
 
The wording "Late Kingston-Rooms" is particularly significant. By the date printed on the ticket the rooms no longer existed as a functioning venue, having been destroyed in the fire of the previous December. The ball advertised for 6 February therefore took place in the immediate aftermath of their destruction, the lost building being commemorated on the ticket itself. The replacement venue is not stated or known to the cataloguer. A rare piece of Bath ephemera.