Tag Archives: French Ivory Mahjong

39690725_1_x

This set was recently auctioned off on Liveauctioneers.com

You will quickly notice the lack of Western letters and Arabic numbers which indicate the set was not meant to be exported from China, but somehow or other it finally made its way out of China to the States.

If you look carefully at the Flower tiles, you'll see there are two sets of dots, one set is dark, and the other one red. Each set has tiles with 1, 2, 3, or 4 dots on them. Tiles like this show up from time to time. You may know that often Flower tiles have numbers on them, two sets of numbers in red and green, numbering from 1 to 4. These tiles have pips that represent the number associated with each tile. For many of us, the number on Flower tiles does not make a difference, but for others who play Hong Kong style, for example, these numbers do make a difference, because each player has a number associated with their seat; if they get the tile associated with their seat, they get an extra point in that game. So from time to time you'll see pips on tiles, and at other times Arabic numbers might be added. It is possible that this set has pips because the rest of the set does not have any Western letters or Arabic numbers, and pips are in keeping with the type of set it is. It is hard to tell from the photo but these pips may have been carved into the tile; sometimes pips and numbers are added in pen or pencil.

There are a few other interesting aspects to the set, proving that photographs can be deceiving. From the top photo it looks like a Chinese Bakelite set because of all the yellow tint. However it is actually French Ivory, as seen in these next photographs.

39690725_8_l

You can see the alternating colors on the tile, indicating it is French Ivory.

 

 

And the true color is probably closer to this:

39690725_5_l

 

The White Dragons, seen in the top photo, are pretty wonderful too.

I am undertaking a new project involving the social history of the game. You can read about by clicking History Project at the top of the Page. Perhaps you would like to participate.

For those of you who don't yet know, there is a wonderful magazine, The Mahjong Collector. You can find out more by emailing them at this address:

 

To see when I am doing author appearances, click here

You can now follow me on Twitter!

@MahJonggGregg

To learn more about Mah Jongg, you might want to take a look at this book that I wrote with Ann Israel, published by Tuttle.

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

or here from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Mah-Jongg-Collectors-Guide-Tiles/dp/4805313234/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1414844427&sr=8-7&keywords=mah+jongg

 

 

 

DSC_0659

 

This particularly beautiful hand carved French Ivory Mahjong set actually greatly resembles a lot of high-end bone and bamboo Mahjong tiles.

The One Bam bird is delightful, perched on a branch.

DSC_0659 bird

Notice how many  strokes are used to create this bird, giving it a great deal of detail. The cross hatching gives it more visual interest.

The other Bams are the rounded variety. The Craks are the elaborate Wan.

DSC_0659 dot

The One Dot has a central plum blossom surrounded by meanders, the abstract pattern used to fill what could have been unadorned space.  The other Dots have a six-petaled flower within an outside circle.

The backs of these tiles are black. French Ivory is made by alternating two slightly different colors of plastic, and slicing through this block to make tiles with the lines reminiscent of real ivory.

The Flowers will be posted tomorrow.