… Met Museum, 32.35(80), 1724. Abstract Masquerades – sociable assemblies of masked participants – developed into forms of public entertainment in eighteenth-century London, often welcoming crowds in the fashionable centres of the metropolis, … the masquerade as a form of sociable entertainment developed in a twofold manner: as a crowd event of the newly emerging public sphere and a selective elitist assembly, deriving from the tradition of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century … that, just like musical concerts, theatrical productions and operas, they gradually entered the realm of more accessible public entertainment. Although it was considerably expensive – Kobza (170) has estimated the lowest possible cost of …