Gaming Counter with the Arms of Slater
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This counter may have belonged to the Slater family based on the crest, which features an eagle sable rising out of a ducal coronet. The Slater family managed ships for the East India Company making voyages to Canton, China during the eighteenth century. Captain Gilbert Slater (1712 – 1785) owned six ships between 1766 and 1772[i] and was Deputy Master of Trinity House. The Trinity House Master heavily influenced the China Trade because the job description was, "to improve the art and science of mariners...preserve good order...and to consult maintenance and increase of navigation and sea-faring men."[ii] The majority of the family wealth has been attributed to him. His son, also Gilbert Slater (1752 – 1796) managed and owned three ships between 1788 and 1792.[iii]
Gilbert Slater Sr. possibly ordered this service for his son as a wedding present. They could have also been ordered by Gilbert Slater Jr. for his widowed mother during one of his final voyages to Canton. Gilbert Slater Jr.’s wife, Elizabeth, designed the background image on the counter.[vi] The ornate boarded of the counter is unusual, in that it was created by drilling through the counter multiple times to achieve the decorative design.
[i] http://sclater.com/history/records-of-the-family-of-sclater/Records-of-the-Family-of-Sclater-by-Claude-Sclater.pdf, March 31, 2016
[ii] https://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/about-us/history-of-trinity-house/th500, April 11, 2016
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