"Re:" Early 1920 to 1922 bone and bamboo mahjong sets

Archived from groups: rec.games.mahjong (More info?)

From experience we know that most bone/bamboo mahjong sets from the
1920s contains 148 tiles which includes 8 blanks. Does any one know
if some of the earlier sets (like 1920 to 1922) contained only 144
(with 4 blanks: 0 spares)??

I am primarily interested in the Mah-Jongg Sales Company sets of 1920
to 1922. To some degree these can be dated by the printing of
"Babcock's Rules for Mah-Jongg" (The Red Book of Rules) that you find
included with many old sets.

I have a standard Mah-Jongg Sales box that came with a 5th printing of
the Red Book (October 1922) and this set has only 4 blanks. Four
trays each holds and fits 35 tiles while the 5th tray holds everything
else. The #1 circle has the Chinese characters that translates to
"Free (or freedom) Mah Jong." Circles also are smaller than I have
seen on other Babcock sets that I have found with later printings of
the Red Book.

I am wondering if this is how the set came (4 blanks and 144 tiles)??
And if spares was a later idea after people started breaking or losing
tiles.

thanks for your thoughs and ideas...

Archived from groups: rec.games.mahjong (More info?)

"Tom Sloper" <tomster@sloperamaNOSPAM.com> wrote in message news:<xrSXc.80511$mD.17244@attbi_s02>...
> "Troy O." <t_oz2003@yahoo.com> wrote...
> > From experience we know that most bone/bamboo mahjong sets from the
> > 1920s contains 148 tiles which includes 8 blanks. Does any one know
> > if some of the earlier sets (like 1920 to 1922) contained only 144
> > (with 4 blanks: 0 spares)??
> >
> > I am primarily interested in the Mah-Jongg Sales Company sets of 1920
> > to 1922. ...
> >
> > I have a standard Mah-Jongg Sales box that came with a 5th printing of
> > the Red Book (October 1922) and this set has only 4 blanks. ...
> >
> > I am wondering if this is how the set came (4 blanks and 144 tiles)??
> > And if spares was a later idea after people started breaking or losing
> > tiles.
>
>
> Hi, Troy.
> I would assume that the set originally came with 8 white dragons, not 4. A
> lot of people crave blanks so they can get them carved into jokers or
> whatever, and some previous owner of the set probably removed the extras to
> sell them or something.
> Aloha,
> Tom

THANKS TOM,
BY THE WAY THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I SAW HOW 36 TILES CAN FIT IN WHAT I
THOUGHT WAS A 35 TILE TRAY.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d [...] RK:MEWA:IT
7(STANDING UP),5 LAYING DOWN,7,5,7,5 = 36
TROY

Archived from groups: rec.games.mahjong (More info?)

In article <56e0412a.0408271744.12ea349f@posting.google.com>,
Troy O. <t_oz2003@yahoo.com> wrote:
>I have a standard Mah-Jongg Sales box that came with a 5th printing of
>the Red Book (October 1922) and this set has only 4 blanks. Four
>trays each holds and fits 35 tiles while the 5th tray holds everything

What does the book say? Later printings have a note saying "if you
lose a tile, send one of the spares by registered post to the
Mah-Jongg company of Shanghai with a note of the missing tile, and it
will be engraved with our compliments" (not an exact quote, I don't
have the book here). My copy is 2nd edition; I don't have a 1st
edition of any printing, so I don't know whether they also said this.
If not, that would support the hypothesis that spares were introduced
later.

Archived from groups: rec.games.mahjong (More info?)

t_oz2003@yahoo.com (Troy O.) wrote in message news:<56e0412a.0408271744.12ea349f@posting.google.com>...
> From experience we know that most bone/bamboo mahjong sets from the
> 1920s contains 148 tiles which includes 8 blanks. Does any one know
> if some of the earlier sets (like 1920 to 1922) contained only 144
> (with 4 blanks: 0 spares)??
>
> I am primarily interested in the Mah-Jongg Sales Company sets of 1920
> to 1922. To some degree these can be dated by the printing of
> "Babcock's Rules for Mah-Jongg" (The Red Book of Rules) that you find
> included with many old sets.
>
> I have a standard Mah-Jongg Sales box that came with a 5th printing of
> the Red Book (October 1922) and this set has only 4 blanks. Four
> trays each holds and fits 35 tiles while the 5th tray holds everything
> else. The #1 circle has the Chinese characters that translates to
> "Free (or freedom) Mah Jong." Circles also are smaller than I have
> seen on other Babcock sets that I have found with later printings of
> the Red Book.
>
> I am wondering if this is how the set came (4 blanks and 144 tiles)??
> And if spares was a later idea after people started breaking or losing
> tiles.

Hello Troy. Can you please describe the box that your set came in?
Better still, can you send me a pic of the box as an attachement to an
email so I may look it up in two photocopied catalogues of the MJ
sales Co., in my possession. In my collection I have one of their sets
- Style 101 as I recall. I was able to look it up and similarly check
for completeness.

Best Regards
Michael Stanwick