Shangas
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 6,116
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Isn't this Ah-door-a-bul? 
I won it at auction and I just carried it home. It's a beautiful, wood-cased antique mahjong set, from the turn of the last century. The tiles are made of bone and bamboo. The entire thing is handmade, and it's a 2/3 miniature-sized set!
I've always wanted an antique mahjong set in a traditional wooden carrying-case, but they're so hard to find for good money in usable condition. Most the time when I see them, they're broken, cracked, chipped, falling apart, and the sets are always missing pieces which means that they're useless to play with.
This one is 100% complete. It has all original 144 bone gaming tiles, and the case is in damn near immaculate condition. The bigger, full-sized sets usually come with tally-sticks and counters for recording points, but they're not essential to the game. Having a full set of tiles is (obviously! You can't play a game without them!).
One thing a set like this would've had, though, is a pair of miniature bone dice. I'm going to see if I can find a set, and I'll put them into the box along with the tiles.
The front panel slides up to reveal the four drawers with folding butterfly-style handles:
The drawers slide open to reveal 36 tiles per-drawer (for a total of 144). If you ever buy an antique set and it doesn't have 144 tiles, it's not a full set. Discard it. MANY of the ones I saw in the past had tiles missing, which is why it took me so long to find this one!
Size-comparison of modern mahjong tile in plastic (left) with my antique tiles (right), which are made of bone. The size on the left is the conventional size for mahjong tiles. So the tiles I have are about 3/4 or 2/3 the size of that, so it's definitely a miniature set. That being the case, I reckon this is rather rare.
I know this set is antique and not a new one/reproduction 'vintage-style' one because of the case.
Traditionally, mahjong sets always came in wooden cases like this. But they're expensive and fiddly to make. Especially something this small. So modern sets (even the high-end 'luxury' sets) come in those flat, briefcase-like cases instead. They're cheaper and faster to make than these old-style hand-crafted carry-boxes. Because they're harder to find, I really wanted one. So glad I held out for this!
Mahjong is VERY pertinent to the 'Golden Era' of the first half of the 20th century; from the late 1800s until the 1940s, Western countries (America, Canada, Britain, and most countries in Europe) went through a HUGE craze of all things Oriental. Mahjong became a GIGANTIC fad in the 1920s and 30s and people were buying sets so fast that suppliers could hardly keep up with them.
Between 1950 - 1985, mahjong was actually banned in the country of its birth - China. It was seen as being wasteful, extravagant and 'capitalist'. But thanks to the HUGE overseas interest in the game (which carried on in Chinese expatriate communities), the fascination in the game never disappeared and sets continued to be made and sold (in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, etc, beyond the reach of the communists).
A lot of these sets (made in Asia for the Western market) were Westernised for ease of use by those who didn't speak Chinese.
Numbers 1-10 were added to the number-tiles, and NSWE were added to the 'wind' tiles, so that people who couldn't read Chinese characters could still follow the game.
This set doesn't have any of those adornments, so it was clearly made for the Chinese market, rather than the Western market, but it was still made at least 100 years ago. And I love it! Just had to share this stunning, half-sized piece of Golden-era Oriental history.
I won it at auction and I just carried it home. It's a beautiful, wood-cased antique mahjong set, from the turn of the last century. The tiles are made of bone and bamboo. The entire thing is handmade, and it's a 2/3 miniature-sized set!
I've always wanted an antique mahjong set in a traditional wooden carrying-case, but they're so hard to find for good money in usable condition. Most the time when I see them, they're broken, cracked, chipped, falling apart, and the sets are always missing pieces which means that they're useless to play with.
This one is 100% complete. It has all original 144 bone gaming tiles, and the case is in damn near immaculate condition. The bigger, full-sized sets usually come with tally-sticks and counters for recording points, but they're not essential to the game. Having a full set of tiles is (obviously! You can't play a game without them!).
One thing a set like this would've had, though, is a pair of miniature bone dice. I'm going to see if I can find a set, and I'll put them into the box along with the tiles.
The front panel slides up to reveal the four drawers with folding butterfly-style handles:
The drawers slide open to reveal 36 tiles per-drawer (for a total of 144). If you ever buy an antique set and it doesn't have 144 tiles, it's not a full set. Discard it. MANY of the ones I saw in the past had tiles missing, which is why it took me so long to find this one!
Size-comparison of modern mahjong tile in plastic (left) with my antique tiles (right), which are made of bone. The size on the left is the conventional size for mahjong tiles. So the tiles I have are about 3/4 or 2/3 the size of that, so it's definitely a miniature set. That being the case, I reckon this is rather rare.
I know this set is antique and not a new one/reproduction 'vintage-style' one because of the case.
Traditionally, mahjong sets always came in wooden cases like this. But they're expensive and fiddly to make. Especially something this small. So modern sets (even the high-end 'luxury' sets) come in those flat, briefcase-like cases instead. They're cheaper and faster to make than these old-style hand-crafted carry-boxes. Because they're harder to find, I really wanted one. So glad I held out for this!
Mahjong is VERY pertinent to the 'Golden Era' of the first half of the 20th century; from the late 1800s until the 1940s, Western countries (America, Canada, Britain, and most countries in Europe) went through a HUGE craze of all things Oriental. Mahjong became a GIGANTIC fad in the 1920s and 30s and people were buying sets so fast that suppliers could hardly keep up with them.
Between 1950 - 1985, mahjong was actually banned in the country of its birth - China. It was seen as being wasteful, extravagant and 'capitalist'. But thanks to the HUGE overseas interest in the game (which carried on in Chinese expatriate communities), the fascination in the game never disappeared and sets continued to be made and sold (in places like Singapore, Hong Kong, etc, beyond the reach of the communists).
A lot of these sets (made in Asia for the Western market) were Westernised for ease of use by those who didn't speak Chinese.
Numbers 1-10 were added to the number-tiles, and NSWE were added to the 'wind' tiles, so that people who couldn't read Chinese characters could still follow the game.
This set doesn't have any of those adornments, so it was clearly made for the Chinese market, rather than the Western market, but it was still made at least 100 years ago. And I love it! Just had to share this stunning, half-sized piece of Golden-era Oriental history.
