Angling Game Set

ClassificationsContainers

Datelate 19th Century

Made AtXiamen, Fujian Province, China, Asia

MediumTin, ivory, felt, string and pigment

DimensionsBox with Lid: 5 × 19 1/2 × 4 5/8 in. (12.7 × 49.5 × 11.7 cm)
Rod: 3/8 × 3/8 × 17 in. (1 × 1 × 43.2 cm)
Game Piece: 1 5/8 × 7/8 × 7/8 in. (4.1 × 2.2 × 2.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of Jan G. Wood

Object number2019.16.1.1-.47

DescriptionThis tin box was made in Xiamen, China likely in the latter half of the 19th Century and contains an ivory playset of a Victorian parlor game in which players take alternating turns using the miniature ivory rods to hook the small weights. Multiple versions of the game existed, going by titles such as “The Expert Angler” and “The Game of Fish Ponds.” Both the maker’s mark and external aesthetic of the box indicate that it was made in China, and the contents of the box seem to indicate that it was made for English consumption following the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The game itself was popularized in the mid to late 1870s. The exterior of the box has lines from a popular Tang dynasty poem inscribed on it, and the floral and animal motifs depict the scenes described in the poem. Given that no similar object has yet been discovered it is likely that this is a custom play set of the angling game commissioned by an English person with regular business in China.

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