A Plaque from Guangzhou

Mother-of-pearl plaques artfully crafted in Guangzhou like this one were usually intended for use as chips for gambling in certain card games [Neal 2007]. Due to its unusually large size, the plaque might not have served as a game counter, but instead could have been made for use as an ornament.

Decorated with incised or carved imagery, some of them were also perforated around the edges or cut into figurative shapes, most commonly of fish. They were made for export, often in combination with wooden boxes or stored in artfully crafted caskets made in Europe. While today individual pieces of these counters are upcycled and mounted in metal to be worn as pendants or earrings, the plaques originally came in sets. One set from 1835 which was kept in a box, for example, included 160 fish-shaped counters alongside 40 square and 29 round ones.[[Ritchie 1974, p 50]](https://www.worldcat.org/title/shell-carving-history-and-techniques/oclc/1193338324&referer=brief_results , page 50)

When used as counters in the card game Quadrille, the many fish in this set would be placed “to swim” in a “pool” at the center of the card table. They would have been of a different value than the rarer square and round-shaped plaques. Most of them are rather small, whereas the object in the Rijksmuseum is unusually large. Its exceptional size might indicate that it was made in a workshop that produced game counters, but is in itself a unique piece for a different purpose. This is further indicated by its decorations.