 1813 Charleston Slave Hire Badge. FRUITERER &c. No.2. LAFAR in a prepared, rectangular punch on the back. Appearance of sharp Extremely Fine in places and of museum quality. Octagonal, all sides nearly equilateral. Holed for suspension. 186.8 gns. 49.3 mm. x 50.9 mm. *CHARLESTON* in a prepared lunate punch at the top. 1813 in a rectangular logotype punch below. FRUITERER &c in a prepared, rectangular punch underneath. No. in a prepared, square punch, 2 hand engraved. Lovely light reddish brown in color. Minor roughness. Dished, the front bowed towards the viewer, believed to add additional strength to the badge when worn. Extremely rare. This is one of the rarest of all occupations. Mr. West's Fruiterer &c badge is the earliest known with this occupation. The one in the Charleston Museum collection is dated 1814. The mystery about this occupation is the significance of the ampersand after FRUITERER. Clearly, it allowed further scope to the trade but exactly what that was is unknown. Fruiterer and Huckster were synonymous license occupations. The extraordinarily low tag number on this badge is noteworthy.
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