TL;DR: Dominos trace to 12th-century China, where tiles with dot combinations representing every possible roll of two dice were used across multiple games, and by 1883 a New York inventor named Richard Williams patented a color-coded version to make matching faster and easier. The original U.S. Patent Office drawing from that patent is available framed or unframed.
In 1883, a man in Mount Vernon, New York sat down and solved a problem that anyone who has played dominos knows: finding matching tiles in a large set takes longer than it should. Richard Williams's solution was straightforward, color-code the dots so each number has a distinct color, letting players scan the table quickly rather than counting pips one at a time. It was a small, practical innovation on a game that had already traveled from 12th-century China through Italy, France, England, and across the Atlantic, accumulating hundreds of regional variations along the way. The patent Williams filed with the U.S. Patent Office is the record of that practical thinking, and the document is as useful a window into the game's history as the game itself.
Origins in China: Yuan Dynasty Tiles and the Mathematics of Two Dice
The earliest domino tiles are believed to have originated in China during the Yuan Dynasty, around the 12th or 13th century. The connection to dice is direct and structural: a standard Chinese domino set contains 32 tiles, each representing a distinct combination of two thrown dice. Since two dice can produce 21 unique combinations (counting each pair once), plus 11 doubles, a full Chinese set contains one tile for each possible outcome, with some duplicated in the military classification system. The mathematical foundation of the game is baked into the tile count.
Early Chinese domino tiles were functionally equivalent to playing cards in their cultural role: they were used for multiple different games, could be shuffled and dealt, and supported both gambling and social play. The physical form, rectangular tile with dots marking each half, gave dominos one structural advantage over cards that shaped how the game would develop over centuries. Tiles can be stood upright, lined up end-to-end, and matched by visible face without the player having to hold them in a hand or lay them flat. The standing tile creates both the matching game and, eventually, the elaborate chain-toppling sequences that have given dominos a second life in performance art.
The Earliest Written Records
From the 12th to the 14th century, several Chinese authors documented domino-based games in writing. The earliest surviving book specifically about dominos is the Manual of the Xuanhe Period, written by Qu You in the early 1400s. The Xuanhe period itself was a Northern Song Dynasty era from 1119 to 1125, suggesting that the games Qu You documented were already considered historical by the time he wrote about them. This places domino play in China well before the 13th century, though the physical evidence for the precise date of origin remains limited.
Chinese domino sets of the period, and continuing into modern traditional play, often carried suit markings classifying tiles as "military" or "civil," a distinction that organized tiles into ranked categories for specific games. Tien Gow, Pai Gow, and Che Deng are among the games using 32-tile Chinese sets. These games remained distinct from the Western domino tradition that developed later, so that today two parallel domino traditions exist: the Chinese 32-tile set and the Western 28-tile set derived from a six-sided die, and the games played with each are largely different.
The Journey to Europe: Italy, France, and England
The mechanism by which dominos traveled from China to Europe is not documented with certainty, though trade routes and the movement of people through Central Asia during the medieval period provide plausible pathways. Dominos appeared in Italy in the 18th century, the first documented presence in Europe, and spread to Austria, Germany, and France within decades.
The Western set that emerged in Europe differs from the Chinese original in a meaningful way. Where Chinese tiles represent all combinations of two six-sided dice (producing a 32-tile set), Western dominos are based on a single die and a blank, producing 28 tiles covering combinations from double blank through double six. The reduction in tile count made Western sets faster to play with in the matching and blocking games that became standard in European play.
The game's arrival in England in the late 18th century is attributed, with some regularity in historical accounts, to French prisoners of war. England and France were in extended conflict during this period, and French prisoners held in English prisons brought games and entertainment with them. Dominos spread from prison populations into civilian English society, a route of cultural transmission that is unusual but well-documented for this particular game.
By the 1860s, dominos had reached the United States, where regional variants began to proliferate. The standard double-six set was established, but the games played with it multiplied.
American Variants and the Modern Game
The American domino tradition is largely a story of new games invented on top of the established tile format. Most of the games now most commonly associated with dominos, Chickenfoot, Mexican Train, and various block games, were developed in the 20th century. Mexican Train, which allows players to build on a shared central track as well as their own trains, became particularly popular in North America and spread internationally.
The larger double-nine and double-twelve sets, with 55 and 91 tiles respectively, developed to accommodate more players and longer games. The additional tiles required additional numbering, which is exactly the problem Richard Williams was solving in 1883: when you have a set with many tiles and multiple players, the cognitive load of identifying matching tiles becomes significant enough to slow the game.
Richard Williams and the Color-Coded Patent
Williams filed his patent in 1883 from Mount Vernon, New York, as dominos were still relatively new to American households. His invention assigned a distinct color to each pip value: all ones would be one color, all twos another, and so on through six. Players scanning the table for a tile matching the open end of a chain could look for the color rather than counting individual dots.
The utility of this innovation scales with the complexity of the game being played. In a simple two-player block game with a double-six set, counting dots is manageable. In a four-player Mexican Train game with a double-twelve set laid out across a large table, color coding reduces the time spent searching and keeps the game's pace from stalling.
Williams's patent is believed to have expired around 1900 without renewal, suggesting it did not generate significant commercial activity during its term. But the logic of the innovation reappears in modern domino sets marketed as accessible to children and new players, where color differentiation reduces the visual complexity of the tile system. Williams identified a real usability problem. The solution he proposed in 1883 was ahead of the market's readiness to adopt it.
The Game Today
Dominos are played across the world in forms that range from casual backyard recreation to organized competitive tournaments. The National Domino Federation organizes play in the United States; international associations exist in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. The game's Chinese roots remain active in a separate competitive tradition. And the chain-toppling version, which bears no relation to competitive scoring games but uses the same physical tile, has become its own art form, with dedicated practitioners building cascading installations that take hours to construct and seconds to fall.
The 1883 Williams patent sits at the moment when dominos had just arrived in America and was still finding its forms. The document captures that transitional period: a game with a 600-year history encountering a practical inventor who thought it could be improved.
Shop Dominos Patent Art Prints
The original U.S. Patent Office drawing that defined the color-coded domino tile. Starting at $49.99 unframed.
Domino (1883), Richard Williams
Williams's 1883 patent assigned a distinct color to each pip value on a domino tile, making matches faster to find across a crowded table. Filed as dominos were still new to American households, this is the original engineering drawing from the U.S. Patent Office. It captures a practical inventor solving a real usability problem on a game that had already traveled six centuries from Yuan Dynasty China. Works in a game room, a living room, or anywhere the history of play matters.
Best for: Domino players, game room decorators, fans of puzzle and strategy games
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did dominos originate?
Dominos are believed to have originated in China during the Yuan Dynasty, around the 12th or 13th century. Early Chinese sets contained 32 tiles representing every combination of two thrown dice, and the tiles were used for multiple games including Tien Gow and Pai Gow. The Manual of the Xuanhe Period, written in the early 1400s by Qu You, is the earliest surviving book specifically about domino games.
How did dominos get to Europe?
Dominos appeared in Italy in the 18th century, then spread to Austria, Germany, and France. The game's arrival in England is attributed by many historians to French prisoners of war held in English prisons, who brought dominos as a game and passed it into civilian English society. By the late 18th century, the game was established in Britain with the Western 28-tile set based on a single six-sided die rather than the Chinese 32-tile format.
Who invented the domino?
No single inventor is credited with creating dominos. The game evolved over several centuries in China from tile-and-dice traditions, then developed independently in European form during the 18th century. Richard Williams of Mount Vernon, New York, patented a specific improvement in 1883: a color-coded domino set where each number had a distinct color to make matching easier. This was Williams's only known patent.
What are the most popular domino games?
The most widely played domino games in the United States today include Mexican Train, Chickenfoot, and various block games using standard double-six sets. Most of these games were developed in the 20th century. Chinese domino games including Tien Gow and Pai Gow remain active in their own tradition. The chain-toppling version of dominos, which uses the tiles as physical objects rather than scoring pieces, is a separate practice with its own competitive and artistic community.
What is the domino patent art print?
The domino patent art print is a reproduction of Richard Williams's 1883 U.S. Patent Office drawing for color-coded domino tiles, rendered in a watercolor style on museum-quality paper. It is available framed or unframed from Timeless Patents, and it is the original engineering document filed when the patent was new, not a later illustration of the game.
Written by Rider Tuff, founder of Timeless Patents. Timeless Patents makes museum-quality patent art prints from original U.S. Patent Office documents, celebrating the inventors behind your favorite sports, hobbies, and passions. Every print is available framed or unframed, starting at $49.99. Shop the full games collection →
