Editing Tangram (section)

===Reaching the Western world (1815–1820s)===
[[File:Tangram caricature France 1818.jpg|thumb|290px|left|A caricature published in France in 1818, when the tangram craze was at its peak. The caption reads: " 'Take care of yourself, you're not made of steel. The fire has almost gone out and it is winter.' 'It kept me busy all night. Excuse me, I will explain it to you. You play this game, which is said to hail from China. And I tell you that what Paris needs right now is to welcome that which comes from far away.' "]]

The earliest extant tangram was given to the Philadelphia shipping magnate and congressman Francis Waln in 1802 but it was not until over a decade later that Western audiences, at large, would be exposed to the puzzle.{{sfnp|Slocum|2003|p=21}} In 1815, American Captain M. Donnaldson was given a pair of author Sang-Hsia-koi's books on the subject (one problem and one solution book) when his ship, ''Trader'', docked there. They were then brought with the ship to Philadelphia in February 1816.  The first tangram book to be published in America was based on the pair brought by Donnaldson.{{sfnp|Slocum|2003|p=30}}

The puzzle eventually reached England, where it became very fashionable. The craze quickly spread to other European countries. This was mostly due to a pair of British tangram books, ''The Fashionable Chinese Puzzle'', and the accompanying solution book, ''Key''.{{sfnp|Slocum|2003|p=31}} Soon, tangram sets were being exported in great number from China, made of various materials, from glass, to wood, to tortoise shell.{{sfnp|Slocum|2003|p=49}}

Many of these unusual and exquisite tangram sets made their way to [[Denmark]]. Danish interest in tangrams skyrocketed around 1818, when two books on the puzzle were published, to much enthusiasm.{{sfnp|Slocum|2003|pp=99–100}}  The first of these was ''Mandarinen'' (About the Chinese Game).  This was written by a student at [[Copenhagen University]], which was a non-fictional work about the history and popularity of tangrams.  The second, ''Det nye chinesiske Gaadespil'' (The new Chinese Puzzle Game), consisted of 339 puzzles copied from ''The Eighth Book of Tan'', as well as one original.{{sfnp|Slocum|2003|pp=99–100}}

One contributing factor in the popularity of the game in Europe was that although the [[Catholic Church]] forbade many forms of recreation on the sabbath, they made no objection to puzzle games such as the tangram.{{sfnp|Slocum|2003|p=51}}