CHINA:LOT of 15 gambling tokens, mother of pearl tokens of various shapes and sizes, all intricately carved with various motifs, all in lovely condition with frosty luster; one fish has a broken tail, retail value $300, lot of 15 pieces. Hand-engraved mother of pearl gaming chips by Chinese artists. Made between 1720 and 1840. Most were shipped from China to the UK, US or mainland Europe. Aristocrats often arranged to purchase exotic gaming chips through sea captains and agents of the East India Company (EIC). As part of their salary, crew members were allocated a small area in the cargo hold in which to transport items to sell personally back in the motherland. The shipping companies themselves were primarily interested in major products such as tableware and tea rather than in small trinkets like mother-of-pearl gaming chips. According to Derek Cowan of Lansdown, England, an internationally renowned collector, the earliest recorded gaming-chip purchase was cataloged by EIC in 1716 and included three dozen fish counters (the fish being the Chinese symbol for luck) along with six dozen others, commissioned and purchased by Lady Griselle Baillie. Because transit time would customarily be two to three years, Lady Baillie would have received her gaming chips sometime in 1718.
