Lydia talked incessantly of lottery tickets, of the fish she had lost and the fish she had won

Chapter 16

I thought you might like to see some 18th century "fish' . This is a picture of some of the "fish" in my collecton of gaming tokens.

These were used instead of "filthy" money when playing cards: the ones above are made of ivory, bone and mother of pearl. They were mostly imported from China, but it is thought that the bone fish( which are interesting but not particularly aesthetic) were made in England.

Gaming tokens did come in other shapes. These pieces . below, are all mother of pearl gaming tokens from our era and are different shapes , and most of them are engraved with patterns. They are not particualrly thick pices of mother of pearl in this selection.

If you were someone rather special, then in the same way you would commission china bearing your arms from the East , you would also order gaming tokens that bore your coat of arms.

This is a close-up of a token I own which is beautifuly pierced, and is engraved with has teh arms and motto of the Fairlie family, who hail from Scotland. The latin motto means "I am prepared".

The King had his ownset ,and here are pictures of rectangular and round gaming pieces from the Royal Collection: theywre commissioned from China for King George and Queen charlotte and are engraved with the Royal coat of arms as you can see.

and

You will not that on the revese the royal cypher of the initials "G"."C" and "R" are visible.

On the theme of cyphers, I thought you might like to see another piece form my collection which has the initials...."J A"...not that I think she could have afforded these ;-(