Antique Bone and Bamboo Mah Jong Set

Superb example of a high quality mahjong set contained within its original beautifully inlaid box with sliding door.

The pieces are made from bone (bovine) and bamboo with the symbols and pictures finely carved into the bone. It is a good quality set with a good proportion of bone, approximately 35% bone to 65% bamboo, joined with a nicely cut dovetail joint. Further signs of quality include an elaborate floral One Dot and a Swooping Sparrow featuring on the One Bam.

There are 144 tiles in the drawer, and there are a further 3 spare blank tiles. There are 2 bone dice, 3 season counters in a pot and a large number of counting sticks. There are also 20 unusual bone and wood tiles with the scoring dots carved into them.

The set is in good condition for its age. It is not new and has been used but has clearly been well looked after. There are general signs of wear and use, slight discolouration on some of the pieces and some fading to some of the colours. The dovetail joints are generally good and tight with only a few small splits. The joints on the bone/wood counting tiles have shrunk back a bit more. Due to their only being 3 spare tiles rather than 4 I have studied the set and I think a 2 bam tile may have been replaced. However the replacement has been well carved and coloured and does match in well (see photo).

All of the components of the game are kept in individual drawers within a specially made box. It is the most wonderful box made from a dense exotic hardwood with intricate inlaid bone carvings. It has metal carrying handles and a sliding front door with its original working key. The 2 drawers have a flush handle which folds up from the bottom and there is a section above the drawers for storing the instruction booklet or other papers.

The box is in good condition for its age. There have been a few old repairs and some old splits, small cracks and small losses in the bone inlay but generally it is strong and sturdy and displays well.

The box measures approximately 9 1/2" (24cm) long by 7" (18cm) wide and 5 1/2" (14cm) high. The tiles measure approximately 2.5cm long x 2cm wide x 1.1cm high.