Games & Other Curiosities

Bone counters clicking on a lacquered table after dinner. Antique games, playing cards and curiosities here include hand-painted Indian playing cards on bone, a boxed Chinese mahjong set and a congklak game board from Ponorogo in Java. The Indian cards, from the early 20th century, likely descend from the old courtly card games of the subcontinent, though attributions in this field run loose. The mahjong set, from mid-century China, keeps its incised and painted bone and bamboo tiles in a mahogany box.

Elsewhere: camel bone tic-tac-toe and chess sets from the United States, a stone chess board from Hebei, a painted wooden toy jack from Maharashtra, wire sculptures of skiers and a stallion, and a lacquered elmwood bird cage tower standing on dragon legs. A French paper piece on the art of death keeps the mood honest. Leave a game out on a coffee table, where it will be admired more often than played. Winning remains optional.