20/8/16

Welcome!

Issue 2 of THE MAHJONG COLLECTOR is now out. See below for details.

A forthcoming addition to this site will be another bone and bamboo tile set in a flat wooden box with a slide-top lid. This set was purchased by the owner in Penang, Malaysia, in 1961. These details are from the original sale receipt that came with the set. Receipts such as this are rare. An accumulation of them can provide invaluable documentary evidence for a likely time period when these sets were manufactured.

(Edit. This set has now been added. See category 2.0/bone and bamboo/slide-top boxes.)

Another addition will be the article that appears in the latest issue of The Mahjong Collector magazine. This article deals with the concept of a Pattern, used in the study of playing cards to identify the maker and geographical location of the origin of the cards. Mahjong is also a game played with playing cards – albeit very thick ones called tiles, and so this article examines an unusual type of tile set and its likely origin. Reference is made to the research of Takashi Ebashi of the late Japanese Mahjong Museum.

(Edit. This will be added shortly.)

Work is still progressing on a new, major section to this site that will hopefully showcase tile sets from personal collections. This section is different to the guest collectors pages as it will feature the thoughts and observations of the collectors whose collections are featured on each page.

The fully engraved tile set 24 in the Category 2.0/bone and bamboo/slide-front cabinets, section will soon feature a new cabinet. Unfortunately the old cabinet is falling apart and regretfully cannot house the tile set safely. Thus this set will be in a red lacquered and painted box with a new slide front created by a master restorer. It is desirable that sets should remain in their original cabinets or cases etc., but where this is not possible there is no harm in moving the set to a different box – provided that move is documented in the set’s provenance.

(Edit. This box has now been added. See category 2.0/bone and bamboo/slide-front boxes.)