Title: William III, 1697-8: An Act for the better and more orderly Payment of the Lottery Tickets
Publisher: Printed by Charles Bill, and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas'd, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty.
Publication Date: 1698
Binding: No Binding
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition
Printed title page and 8 printed pages (numbered 573-80, & extracted from larger work). Royal armorial woodcut to title. Headpiece of three lines of ornamental printer's devices. Elaborate, floral, woodcut, ornamental initial device. 18 x 27 cm. Disbound, with remains of original stitching. A complete original printed act, removed from the annual volume for the year. Among other issues this law insisted that lottery prize money for unclaimed winners was not disposed of in other ways but was reserved until the prize was claimed. England's first ever National Lottery was in 1567 in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, when England was seeking to expand its export markets around the world. The lottery was intended to raise money for the enormous costs of building ships and developing ports. A statute from earlier in 1698 labelled lotteries as illegal in England, unless specifically authorised by the state. Small lotteries were only legalised again in 1934. Note the archaic use of English Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, at that time considered to be more readily legible (especially by the less literate classes of society), and therefore remained in use throughout the 17th century and into the 18th for documents intended for widespread dissemination, such as proclamations and Acts of Parliament, and for literature aimed at the common people, such as ballads, chivalric romances, and jokebooks. This 324 year-old Lottery related imprint is in very good condition. Seller Inventory # 5181