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Chief EGG Head
United States
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So recently I had some discussion here on BGG about old Mahjong sets. There are a lot of fakes around these days and I thought it might be interesting to talk a bit about old sets as I kind of have a soft spot for them. The best site for information by far is Tom Slopers's http://www.sloperama.com/mjfaq/whereg.htm
When most people think of antique MJ sets from the 1920's, they think of bone and bamboo sets. These were made of cow bone and dovetailed to fit bamboo backs. They frequently come in wooden chests in various condition. Often the have brass decoration or inlay of some sort. The drawer handles may be brass pulls or bone knobs. I have seen a couple chest that I'm doubtful were original but they work to hold the tiles! Here are some pics of different chests. This one is classic with 5 drawers and front slide cover and this one has lift out trays and this chest seems more modern with these metal knobs and the precision of the wood but it came with an older rule book and research show it is also from the 1920's. Here is the rule book This is the classic Babcock rulebook I don't believe that many of these old sets actually came with racks but I have 1 set of wooden racks with scoring information on the bottom that seems to date from around that time I like to see a good bone to bamboo ratio so looking at the side of the tiles helps and you can also see the dovetailing vs
Most of these sets also came with bone counting sticks, a ming (a little bone container with 4 wind disks) and some bone dice that may come in a little wooden "coffin"
There are all kinds of different carving styles. Here you can see the two different characters used for the red and green dragons. The red 8's are less common to find. Here are some different representatives of the 1 bamboo suit and the 1 dot
You can also find other types of tile material from the 1920's. French Ivory sets were made of celluloid or Pyralin. Some were solid celluloid others were glued with wood backs (no dovetailing). Some sets had Pyralin on the face and the back with wood in between These came with Pyralin counting sticks and dice
Bakelite sets came later from the 1930-50's. I have a sentimental preference for Chinese bakelite or Hand Carved bakelite tiles which tend to be solid yellowish in color as opposed to the two tone tiles of the American MJ sets. Here are some nice tiles with lots of detail on the flower and season tiles probably from the 1930's and a more modern set, maybe 1950's to compare with it
And finally, here is an old card version of MJ from Parker Bros.
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and this one has lift out trays
and this chest seems more modern with these metal knobs and the precision of the wood
but it came with an older rule book and research show it is also from the 1920's. Here is the rule book
This is the classic Babcock rulebook
I don't believe that many of these old sets actually came with racks but I have 1 set of wooden racks with scoring information on the bottom that seems to date from around that time
I like to see a good bone to bamboo ratio so looking at the side of the tiles helps and you can also see the dovetailing
vs
These came with Pyralin counting sticks and dice
