18TH/19TH CENTURY

Beginning as early as 1720 gaming counters of mother-of-pearl were made in China for Western card and game players. A selection was exhibited in A Tale of Three Cities: Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong (p. 243) where D. S. Howard notes that "the finest were armorial", often made for the same families as the great porcelain services. A set made for Abigail Quincy, sister-in-law of Samuel Shaw, was exhibited at the Peabody Museum, Salem (Directly from China: Export Goods for the American Market, 1984).