Description:
A complete set of thirty-two Chinese dominoes made by ebony wood, with two ox-bone dice and the antimony case. Chinese dominoes can be called Tian Jiu (literally heaven nine) or Pai Jiu (literally domino nine) in Chinese. They both are popular Chinese tiles game played with one set of dominoes, but in difference style.
Nobody is sure where or when Chinese dominoes came into existence, but they were reported by European travelers during the Renaissance and are still popular in Asian countries today. In the book Chinese Origin of Playing Cards published in 1895 Sir William Henry Wilkinson pointed out that the game of Tien jiu was invented long before the Song Dynasty but was standardized by the twelfth century, but may have existed before then.
Chinese dominoes are different from the usual set of Western dominoes in many ways. About the only things they have in common is a relationship to the dice used in their cultures.
Tian Jiu is a challenging game for four players using thirty-two Chinese domino tiles. Since each hand only starts with eight tiles and up to four tiles can be played in a trick, each round of the game can be very short. The game can be very fast-paced provided the players don't ponder each move for too long. Pai Jiu means, "make nine" in Chinese and it is the original version of Baccarat. The house starts the game as the bank, but then can pass the bank to other players, as in Baccarat. Compare with Pai Jiu, Tian Jiu is more popular play in Southern China, such as Guangdong province, and for some unknown reason Pai Jiu is more welcomed in Northern China.
The condition of this set dominoes are excellent, beside of some minor chip in couple tiles. The two ox-dices are not the match pair, but age is same as the dominoes, both are late 19th – early 20th century.
Tile Dimension: Height 1 1/2 inch (4 cm)
Case Dimension: Width 3 3/4 x Depth 3 1/2 x Height 1 1/4 inch (Width 9.5 x Depth 9 x Height 3 cm)
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