Ivory Mahjong Tiles

Only a few sets would have ever been made of ivory and many of these would have been made for the export market as could be seen with western indices on the tiles instead of just chinese characters and numbers.

Ivory mahjong tiles.

Many people think they have ivory mahjong sets either because they assume they do or that is what they have been told. Antique butterscotch bakelite mah jong set 152 tiles 5 racks. Antique chinese mah jongg set bone bamboo wood chest case dice 1920 s. Ivory was in very short supply in china in the 1920s and china was a poor country then.

Deeply carved well painted and a good weight. You can see the criss cross chevron pattern known as schreger lines on the top two tiles. Some people do have ivory tiles but most people don t. The ivory color is true not yellow or greenish as was a tile set i purchased from another web site.

Notice the fine vertical lines created to make the tiles look like ivory which is why celluloid of this type was referred to as french ivory but the grain is too regular to be ivory. 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. Bone bone is by far the most common material used in antique chinese mah jongg sets and it is usually dove tailed with bamboo. This is a quality set of mah jong tiles.

This set is pure ivory. Those looked as if they would glow in the dark not attractive at all.