Hello all -- last week I won at auction this neat 1896 699-chip ivory poker chip set in its original rack. It is the best one I ever owned. Not for sale, but others have encouraged me to show it here, so......

I made up this web page to explain all aspects of the set. Hope you enjoy it:

http://www.antiquegamblingchips.com/Ivories_Josephine.htm

MORE PICTURES BELOW.

It's an interesting story involving:
¶ owned by P. A. B. Widener, one of the richest men in America at the time, over 100 years ago. Widener was in the same league as the likes of J P Morgan. He helped organize American Tobacco Co, U S Steel, Reading RR, etc.
¶ naming his 225-yacht the "Josephine" (same as on the chips) after his wife Josephine, who died 5 months later aboard the ship! The chips were kept aboard the yacht, which included a 30-by-18-feet-wide saloon featuring paneled mahogany with a fireplace and large bookcases.
¶ transferring the yacht to the U.S. Navy in 1898 to be refitted as the "USS Vixen" and fighting in the Spanish-American War, and later serving in the Caribbean and patrolling the East Coast during WW I.
¶ prove his ownership, showing his personal registered nautical pennant (burgee) -- on both the chips and his personal yachts.
¶ his connection and part-ownership to the White Star Line and the Titanic, which went down with his son and grandson in 1912. The captain of the Titanic attended a dinner party with the Wideners (PAB Widener was not aboard) a few hours before it hit the iceberg!

Robert