I am delighted to share this set with you. This is a one-off set: designed by a group of male friends, celebrating their friendship. (You'll see why I write this in a future post.) The bit of research I've done indicates that eight friends were together in China, between the wars. I'm pretty sure they played mahjong and at least one of them had a wonderful sense of humor. I'd like to think these men all had a great time when they were playing mahjong with these tiles. In addition to the many wonderful images, each type of tile has a saying, some we can understand today, but others remain a bit of a mystery.
I imagine this group had a lot of fun coming up with some unusual visuals and sayings for each kind of tile. Knowing what they wanted, they commissioned this high-quality set, with thick bone and thin bamboo. The bone to bamboo ratio is about five or four to one, and the set of tiles is one of the heaviest I've ever lifted. The tiles are not only deep, they're long and wide. The carver did a magnificent job. He might not even have known how to speak English or write the Roman alphabet (some of the letters are charmingly a bit off) but it's very clear what many of the tiles "had to say."
Let's start with the above group of tiles. The Bam suit has stylized Bamboo stalks, shaped something like barbells. The saying under the 2 Bams, PLAY WITH YOU, rings truer this year than it would have before, and makes me a bit teary. What we've all been missing during this Covid time is being with friends. Those of us who play mahjong have particularly missed being at the table with friends, playing the game with real mahjong tiles.
The caption under the One Bam is quite fun. Yes, the One Bam is usually a bird, but the line in place of the bird One Bam brings a smile. The phrase "IT'S A BIRD" reminds me of Superman's opening lines "It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's Superman." Superman first "appeared" in 1938.
And how do you like the "Soap," (the nickname a lot of us have for the white Dragon), this time a bar of soap, still in its wrapper. I didn't realize that two ingredients of early Palmolive must have been derived from palm and olives. Who knew that nickname "Soap" has been around for so long? Here's a bit about Palmolive's history.
The 3 Bam has "BOY CATCH ORDER" and I have no idea what that means. 4 has"GET OFF MY SUIT" maybe a take on "Get off my seat" or a reference to getting into comfortable clothing in order to relax. 5's "WHO'S STUCK" doesn't seem to have any easy explanation, but I'll go out on a limb here and say I don't know anyone who wants to be stuck back in 2020. With #6, "TIME" can you see the "font" on the tile is the same as on TIME magazine, or as close as they could get it? The magazine was first published in NYC in 1923, so this set dates to 1923 at the earliest.
The Time Magazine logo
In the game of Craps, a roll of 7 or 11 is a natural. That must be what the 7 Bam is about "NATURAL BONES" (bones is a nickname for dice). 8's "GARDEN GATE" may refer to some of the "named" hands in some other forms of mahjong. Although I haven't been able to find the exact hand, there are Gardens (Greta's Garden), and Gates (Heavenly Gates). I like the way "8" and "gate" rhyme too. The 9 Bam's "GIMME A POOL" remains a mystery. Perhaps a reference to a betting pool?
More on this wonderful set to come in future posts.
By the way, there's a lot to be said about playing mahjong with different types of tiles. Some friends and I played with this set –years ago of course– and it gave us a lot of pleasure and a real mental workout. I encourage you to try different sets: it may be a bit harder but it's really good for you. And fun. And isn't that what mahjong's all about?
It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful some of the German carved sets can be. The companies certainly hired some of the best talent around to come up with designs. Wood sets, typically thought of as the low end of the product line, were not ignored. Designers came up with wonderful interpretations. This set would be a delight in anyone's collection. We saw another set a while ago, owned by Mim. This one is just as special.
The Bams still have their vibrant colors, but take a look at the unique design images. The Evens have Horizontal and Vertical orientations, but the Odds are diagonals. To me, the 7 and the 9 look a bit like Peacocks. The One Bam bird looks a bit like a pigeon, with a rounded tummy.
These Dots make me smile. From 1-9, no Dots are the same pattern. They are all unique, varying from elaborate stars on the One Dot to simple circle with a dot center on the 8 Dot.
These Craks tho are just fabulous. Look at all of the energy they radiate. Each one has great style: the wan characters, and both Arabic and Chinese numbers. It is not often I fall for a set because of the Craks, but this is one such set. The style is very German as well.
The Winds carry on with that wonderful flair we saw on the Craks. You will note the letter "O" on some of the tiles: in German East is Ost. The Dragons are a bit difficult to make out tho it is clear their heads are up at the top of the tiles. The blank ones are the White Dragons. The Flowers are surprisingly simple (The bottom right one is upside down, which I think makes it look a bit like an alien creature with two big eyes!) You will see the Orientation points here as well, because one of the styles of play gives points for Flowers if they are the same for your seat or the round being played.
It came in these little cardboard drawers, with counting sticks and dice.
Notice how tiny the tiles are compared to the Chinese Bakelite one on the rack in the top of the photo: the tile on the right is the one for this set.
Here is the maker of the set, certainly not a company I have seen before. Look carefully at the box top and you will see a sparrow to the left of the label-this is "the game of sparrows, of course!"
Most of you see how the designs on the tiles are not truly centered. Our tiles expert Tony Watson weighed in with how they designs were done: a metal tool was dabbed with a paint-soaked pad and then pressed onto the block of tiles, which are then sawn to size. You can sometimes see how they didn't get the registration correct, either in the stamping or the sawing (or both).
I wrote this back in 2018, and cannot remember where the images came from. Apologies for not giving credit.
Because for some of us, no celebration is complete without mahjong, here's a tile featuring a pig at the bottom from a fabulous fully carved Chinese Bakelite set:
Tile courtesy of William Price
The dog on the top looks a lot like mine. Here's a photo of my dog contemplating a toy bought to celebrate the Year of the Pig.
Five minutes later, for a really "durable" toy:
And now a step back in time to 2002 where mahjong is part of a Chinese New Year celebration.
Many of you know that the smaller hand-carved bone and bamboo sets are starting to be appreciated the way they should be. I gave myself one of them for Christmas years ago (I fell for the horse Jokers) and the set connected me with a collector (now friend) who helped me develop my expertise about mahjong sets and Chinese art. So I really have a fondness for these little treasures.
A reader sent me photos of his set, and I must admit I had not seen one like this before. I am sharing it with you now.
The One Bam peacocks are fabulous, aren't they? The Flowers are a Dragon (half hidden in the cloud (the pink), probably looking for his pearl which I can't see, a tiger (lord of all the land animals), a deer (emblem of long life) and a goldfish. When the tiger and the Dragon meet, the two great forces of the universe are together (from C.A. S. Williams) The bottom tiles, 1 and 2 are Liu Hai and the three legged toad.
And isn't that Goose Joker the best? According to C.A.S. Williams, the wild goose is the harbinger of good news-how perfect for a Joker!
Fully carved sets are rare, as are ivory ones, so it was amazing to get an email about one. The owners were curious about it. Their set is a true Mahjong Treasure, and I am delighted to share the images with you. We'll start with the box.
It's made of pigskin, painted in red and gold and embossed. Note there's a keyhole for a lock toward the top of the front.
People who have tiles that are a combination of a white material and bamboo often think their sets are made of ivory and bamboo, but usually their sets are bone and bamboo. This set is pure ivory. You can see the criss-cross chevron pattern, known as Schreger lines, on the top two tiles.
We'll go to the One Dot, the inspiration for the Joker pattern of many of the newer sets. Here the Dragon is pretty easy to decipher, although he is way too big to be entirely on the tile. He's curled up, and we see three parts of his body. If you think of the circle as a clock face, his head is in the center of the tile, his neck at 4:00, the middle part of his body (upside down) from 11:00 until 1:00, and his tail at 8:00. Fabulous!
Now we will see how the craftsmen designed all the suits.
The One Bam is a hawk on a globe, a symbol of Chinese military strength. I love that MJ is carved into the tile. The other Bams are bamboo shoots. Dots 2-9 are lovely delicate flower heads. The Craks are floral garlands. But look at the Chinese numbers on the Craks. Those of you with sharp eyes, or those of you lucky enough to own Dee Gallo's Money Set, will notice the numbers are not those we normally see on tiles. Instead they are the ones used in Chinese banking: the numbers are different so as to make it more difficult to change a number into a higher one. Think about Arabic numbers-it's pretty easy to change a 1 into a 7; the Chinese banking numerals made altering numbers impossible.
The other numbered tiles continue with the same patterns.
Onto the Winds, Dragons and Flowers. The Winds, normally quite dull in appearance (except in a Dee Gallo set) are garlands with different squash. In Chinese culture, squash or gourds are symbols of wishes for lots of children, because they have so many seeds in them. And I think the garlands are really vines. (per Primal Trek)
From Primal Trek http://primaltrek.com/gourd.html
The Chinese language has a large number of written characters but a smaller number of spoken sounds so many Chinese characters share the same or similar pronunciation (please see Hidden Meaning of Symbols). The Chinese have a strong propensity to associate similar sounding words. For example, trailing gourd vines are described in Chinese as man (蔓}. This same character can also be pronounced as wan and has the exact same pronunciation and meaning as 万 which means "10,000". Because the gourd contains many seeds, the Chinese associate the gourd with "10,000 children". In ancient China, parents hoped for many sons and grandsons so the gourd became an important charm symbol for a large family with many children.
We have a Dragon with the Red Chung symbol (The Chung represents China, as does the Dragon) and the Phoenix with the Green Dragon. (When the Dragon and Phoenix are paired together, the Phoenix represents the Empress. ) The White Dragon is the abstract frame we often see on newer tiles. And of course we have the always delightful children at play, this time some are playing with firecrackers. You will see the #1 tile at the bottom shows a boy holding his ears: he does not want to hear the explosion!
Thanks to Ray Heaton, we have a translation of the characters on the Flower tiles:
皆大歡喜, jiēdàhuānxǐ, to everyone's delight and satisfaction.
逍遙快樂, xiāoyáo kuàilè, unconstrained happiness.
The full set, in all its glory.
From the owner of the set:
I have a vintage Mah Jong set brought from China by my grandmother who was in Shanghai with the U.S. Navy in 1936. She enjoyed Mah Jong very much and had three sets when she died, but this one, an ivory set in a beautiful decorated pigskin box, I kept. The tiles are 1' 3/16 x 7/8" x1/2".
I have ascertained the tiles are ivory, not bakelite or any other substance by examining them with a 10 power lens and comparing them to the photos of ivory that you placed on your web page.
In thinking more about it, my father was about 5 years old when he was in China, because he talked about his mischievously pushing his "Ama" (nurse) over very easily as she had bound feet. That would put the family there in 1928 which I think is a logical date for acquiring the set.
The other thing is that the Flowers, or as my grandmother called them "Pretties", are a set showing a boy lighting doing all sorts of play things, such as lighting firecrackers, standing on his hands or playing an instrument.
A later email:
But I am extraordinarily pleased to discover that it is such a superb example of Mahjong sets, and possibly one of a kind. My grandmother shipped it out to me when I was first married in 1965, along with some oriental carpets and a Chinese pillow box that had been presented to my grandfather by a "mandarin". U.S. Military men were held in high esteem back in the 1920's and it is possible that the ivory set was a gift to him as well. I think it is interesting that the chest/container is relatively unremarkable, and I wonder if that was to "hide" the ivory so that it was not so tempting to steal. Just speculation on my part.
I think its interesting the box has a real lock on it. (There were many ways to secure mahjong boxes to try to keep their contents safe. Opening panels with tricky ways to open them were all the rage.) Thieves could just have been picked up the box and stolen it, so the lock was probably just to keep people from opening it and taking out pieces to play with, perhaps losing them.
I think I "speak" for all of us with a big thanks to this reader. What a beautiful way to start the new year.
Here are a few additional images of the box, and the dice holder which reminds me of one of those chops used to stamp characters at the bottom of documents or letters.
Crisloid has been making mahjong sets here in the USA for years. For those of you who don't know, in the past they mass-produced sets for Ten Flowers, Lowe, Royal, Cardinal, and Eastern Distributors. Recently they made special limited-edition ones for Red Coin and MJLA. This is their latest, and I have to admit, for me, it was love at first sight. I can almost guarantee these tiles will bring a smile to everyone's lips. Known as the Trach/Bach set, it's named after its designers Robert Trachtenberg and Tom Bachtell. You can see how charming it is just by looking at the Joker. Many of us feel we multi-task, but look at this elephant who puts us all to shame: on its two hind legs, roller skating while yo-yoing. (I looked it up, this term exists.) For purposes of this post, I borrowed liberally from the Crisloid website:, including the following two paragraphs and all photographs of the tiles.
Renowned photographer and Emmy-award winning director Robert Trachtenberg learned to play mahjong two years ago. This quickly evolved into a weekly game with a group of rabid “mahj” enthusiasts. Between them, they have at least fifteen vintage sets— and a lot of Trachtenberg’s money. When he began searching for a set of his own, he soon learned that however beautiful, they were pretty much all variations on the standard theme.
Determined to create a one-of-a-kind mahjong set from scratch, Trachtenberg has reimagined every tile with wit, flair, and a riot of color. Collaborating closely with legendary illustrator Tom Bachtell (whose work has been featured in The New Yorker magazine for over twenty years) and the team here at Crisloid in a creative partnership, we’re sure you’ll love the result — a hand-painted, wildly original, inventive take on the classic game.
It's not easy to come up with variations on a theme for mahjong sets. Tiles have to be recognizable for what they are. I was enchanted by their creative take on designs, and I quickly caught on to what was what. Let's start by looking at the Dots.
Dots
The number of dots on her dress changes, as does their placement, making it easy to see which tile is which. Don't you think this lady is off to her mahjong game, a bit late? You see her necklace flying as she quickly makes her way. Her NMJL card can easily fit into her purse, right?
Time for the Bams: pandas eating bamboo stalks, as they are wont to do.
Bams
Each and every panda is adorable. Look at the guy sitting in the Adirondack chair! And the expression of the one on #7 is too much.
The Craks, usually the dullest of the tiles, have a chance to shine. Here they're fabulous.
Craks
See how the number of cracks are the same as the Crak number, at least as long as the vase is still whole. But eventually the cracks take their toll. Number 9 is just barely a recognizable pitcher, so don't rush to put any water in it. Counting the number of cracks reminded me of that visual game mystery: "What is different in these two illustrations?" But I cracked it! (Sorry, couldn't help myself.) You can count the number of injuries to the vase.
And now for the Dragons, which really had me laughing out loud.
Dragons
The White is a bar of soap. It has soap written on it, but you can see bits of the frame that often stands in for The White Dragon. Tom and Robert really "nailed it" (another pun, tho right on topic) ) with the Red guy buffing his claws. The Green Dragon one is flossing, something more of us need to remember to do.
The Flowers are beautiful, with their multi-colored palette.
Flowers
The ladies holding the floral bouquets have color-coordinated their rings to their bracelets. There is some mahjong jewelry there, if you look carefully.
Here's a delightful twist on the normally dull Winds.
Winds
These are so inventive. We have four areas of the USA represented on the tiles. Two made me laugh out loud: the North's camper and the bear, and the East's jaunty fellow, just off the ocean liner, hailing a taxi (or at least that's my interpretation). The South's Scarlett is keeping cool, thanks to her fan, and that updraft, and I can feel that hot desert sun in the West. That detail of the sunglasses outside of the scarf is too funny.
This wind indicator should bring a smile to everyone's face. I may just have to start playing with one.
I know some people really just like playing with traditional sets-the tiles are easily recognizable and all the players need to do is to focus on their hands. But, given that many of us love art and giving our brains a work-out at the same time, this set should not to be overlooked. The tiles are big, allowing for those players with older eyes (myself included) can easily see them, and the visual differences on each allows us (nudges us?) into using our brains a bit more on every hand. A few of us played with one the other day, and it was a great fun, only requiring a tiny bit of extra focus. And the visual joy of playing with these tiles was an added bonus.
Both of the men responsible for designing the set told me a bit of background about how the set came to be.
Robert Trachtenberg:
“As an avid Mahj player, I was interested in the possibility of creating a set that would take a completely new visual approach to the game while still remainingaccessibleto any player. The first - and only - illustrator I thought of was Tom Bachtell with whom I had previously collaborated on my book, WHEN I KNEW. He didn’t (and to my knowledge still doesn’t) know the first thing about how to play, but he is such a creative giant, I think the idea of turning his work into something three dimensional intrigued him. The set was in development for about a year and I tested it out for several months with my regular Mahj group. Tom and I tweaked and adjusted and had the great team over at Crisloid turn this into a reality."
Tom Bachtell:
Robert has always had an appreciation for my art and sensibility, and vice versa; we’ve long followed each other’s work. In 2016, my LA-based-photographer-cum-editor-and-film documentarian friend called and said, “Tom, I’m going to ask you an odd question. What do you know about Mahjong?” What I knew about the game was my lifelong fascination with it as a cultural phenomenon — the 20s Mahjong craze I read about in my childhood TimeLife books, the 20th century urbanity, the Chinoiserie, the smart game with the noisy tiles that ethnic families loved to play, the bubbies who played it at the deep end of our swimming club’s pool next to the shuffleboard, the wonderful tile designs. I’d never actually played it. Robert presented the idea of doing a sort of American take on it, but with our combined sensibility —- I was surprised it had never been accomplished before. We quickly got started, and it proved to be an excellent distraction from my regular work. Robert is a Mahjong maven, and involved all his Mahjong pals for guidance and testing out my designs. I discovered that some of my own friends play it. I came to know the quirks of the game, as well as the quirks of engraving miniature drawings. It was a fascinating process. Plus, Robert is fun and smart and funny, so he’s a joy to work with. It’s a great pleasure to see it produced, and the delight people are finding in it. And now I belong to a Facebook Mahjong page.
The set has gotten a lot of write-ups, including in the New York Times and American Express's Departure Magazine.
For more information about this talented two-some, you can click on these links.
Most of you know I love the quirky and charming sets made by someone, for someone. This is one, hand painted on wood, a labor of love. The tiles are tiny: here's one on the left, compared to an average Chinese bakelite one.
These are the Bams, and the One is unique. The others look a lot like cucumbers to me. Anyone notice the unusual arrangement of the 7 Bams? It's as if the painter just fit in that last one on the bottom. And the 9s have their own flair.
The Craks have a certain panache, calling attention to themselves. The artist took some liberty with the Chinese numbers and the wan character, but they're fun.
The Dots just make you want to smile. Once again, original takes on the arrangement of the images.
Lots of flourishes are here on the Winds and Green and Red Dragons. The Flowers are the most traditional part of the set, though they look like they were just picked from the meadow earlier that morning. The #3s are quite droopy, perhaps in need of water?
Each counter was painted, and given a value.
Here's the box, next to a more traditionally sized one.
Many of you know Chinese Bakelite is the name given to a variety of plastics used to make mahjong tiles that are carved by hand. These sets are prized for the delicacy of the designs (the plastic allowed for incredible details) and the often unusual Flowers. Most often the tiles are a single color, but sometimes you can find one with a wafer back, such as this one. These wafers ( different plastic glued to the Chinese Bakelite) are one of the more unusual colors: red.
What's not to love about this set? The wafers are the prettiest red I have seen. The striped One Bam bird is charming, the Dots beautifully carved with pretty details, and the White Dragon is one of my favorites. Up until now, every time I've seen a deeply carved Red Dragon, it's been in an owl set. (Notice how deep that gauge is?) This obviously is not an owl, but another very high end set.
There are 16 Flowers, but right now I am only going to show you 15. For those of you who have Mah Jongg the Art of the Game, you'll see how some of the images are very similar to those seen on page 123, but without the traditional clothing.
These ladies are having a day in the country. They look like young women might have in the 1930s, enjoying leisurely activities and relaxing. Everyone looks pensive, lost in thought. There's a reason: They are all modeling! It's a photo shoot of some sort!
And here's the guy responsible: the photographer. Don't you love that big camera?! This is the first time I have ever seen a full set of the photo shoot. So keep your eyes out one for these!
Needless to say, I am not going to cover up any of these tiles to turn them into Jokers. I'll use the little dot stickers that some people mark the hands they've won with, and put the stickers in empty spaces on the tiles. The tiles with the dots will be the Jokers. I'll take the stickers off after each game so as not to ruin the tiles. But that photographer is never going to be a Joker! So I guess those maidens are never going to "lighten up."
Snapshot of Michel Arnaud's photograph in Mah Jongg The Art of the Game
Colorful metal counters
This is a relatively rare set, and I took an iphone photo of the photograph by Michel Arnaud in Mah Jongg The Art of the Game, published by Tuttle. The caption in the book, page 90, reads: "The Chinese Game Company in Baltimore made this rare set of hollow tin tiles. The tiles are conservative in design, but the counters are very colorful. The box lid is a typographical triumph."
The visible Flower tiles are the four callings: fisherman, wood cutter, farmer and scholar. You can see Bams, a few Dots, and the Craks. There's a mystery in the Craks-and who will crack it open? What's wrong? One eagle-eyed reader pointed it out to me the other day.
And the answer is: The 6 Crak has the Chinese number for 9, and although you can't see it, the 9 Crak has the number for 6!
Many of us come across interesting handmade sets, and most of the time we have no idea where they came from, or their story. This time we are lucky: we can see the set and know how it came about 55 years ago! The tile suits are unique in design, as are the Jokers and Flowers, but I think we could all be ready to play with it with only a few seconds of "which tile is which."
A while ago I gave a talk, and afterwards a woman approached me to tell me that her husband had a set made of ceramic tiles. Of course I was intrigued, and I asked her to email me photos of the set. I received them the other day. So here is the story, from the tile set's artist.
"My wife and I enjoyed your recent talk about the art of mah jongg. The variety of styles and designs of the tiles is amazing. My wife mentioned that I had made a set of tiles in the early 1960s, and you told her that you would like a picture of the set. Well, here you go . . . This is the first time that the entire set has been out of the box in I don't know how many years. I don't think I've ever actually played a game with it.
You talked about how so many mah jongg designs tell stories. My set doesn't tell a story, but, yes, it does have one. I had a friend in high school whose family played mah jongg. I joined them several times and enjoyed the game. They recommended a book about how to play - I know I still have it packed in a box somewhere. I started making myself a set out of ceramic tiles, and I finished it probably around 1962.
The designs are painted with enamel and then sealed with nail polish.
The "cracks" feature a stylized F - for Foreman.
The white dragons are blank tiles. If I were making them today I would probably have painted black flame shapes to match the green and red ones.
The eight tiles with the shape designs may be the "jokers". The shapes are copied from Corps insignia of the Union army in the Civil War.
From Wikipedia
I don't remember the purpose of the four small tiles with E, S, W, and N. (ED: These would be the Wind indicators, to convey which Round is being played. In some versions of the game, the first four games are the East Round, the next four the South Round, etc. These are important for many reasons, including getting the right Flower or wind can give you extra points in a game.)
The other small tile, with the design, was intended to be passed to whoever is "East."
(Seen just under the ESWN in the 2nd photo. You will notice that the E is a different color from the other Winds, and the case in the Wind tiles as well. Having the East be a different color can also be the case with racks: you will get a set with four racks, one being a different color. This helped to indicate who was the first person to start off being East in the round of four games.)
(ED: Many of us who are East pass the dice to indicate who will be East the next game)
I’m glad you like the set. It was fun to make, and it certainly brings back memories.
I have attached scans of the face tiles (I think we called them “pretties”). Notice that there small chips on some of the tiles. They have survived surprisingly well over the years, but . . .
The wonderful portraits on the Flowers!
Do go ahead and show the set on your blog and it may help bring other homemade sets "out of hiding."
The artist was living in New York State at the time he made the set. He drew the likenesses of his friends on the tiles.
I know some of us are particularly wild about these hand-made one of a kind sets: they prove how important the game was in the lives of the people who played it, then as is true today.
