Description:
Set of 32 Chinese export mother-of-pearl gaming or loo counters of various shapes and sizes in lacquerware box, HD 85.046, which were used by Duckworth family of Montague and Springfield, Massachusetts. Mother-of-pearl shell was principally imported into China from the Persian Gulf, the Indian coast, and islands in the archipelago and the Phillipines. It was used mostly in China for gaming counters, boxes, buttons, other small items, and extensively for furniture inlay for both Chinese and China Trade pieces; its was also shipped to the west in bulk for button making and other decorative uses. Gaming counters were used to keep score and as stakes for various gambling games. Many of these counters are miniature panels - round, square, or rectangular - carved with landscape scenes of figures; fish-shaped counters are frequently mentioned in bills of sale. Many counters were cyphered with the initials of their owners. This group, which were less expensive than those with personalized decoration or packaging, has: 9 fish, 3 rectangles (2 straight-edged, 1 wavy-edged), 7 circles, 2 small rounded ovals, and 11 long ovals. They are simply decorated with a trellis pattern, pagoda, and flowers. The original data sheet states that there were 48; there is no record of the group being separated.
Tags:
games Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+85.045 |
