Gallery 5. British.

Abbey Yellow Card Box Bamboo Mah Jong Set.

Bought for a fair price on eBay UK; there were good pics, but not of the tile set, so I got a very pleasant surprise when I saw that it had a Bamboo sprout #1 Bamboo.
The box is pretty beaten up, but can be resurrected. It measures 220x145x75mm.

The box is made from thin card covered in yellow paper with an applied logo on top, I'd like to see underneath to check if it covers another logo - I think that this could be a re-badge of a Gibson or Jaques set, but in any case it is very rare - I've only seen this maker once before.

The tiles are nice and thick, not much patina, mostly dirt, so I doubt if these were played with much.
They measure 30x21x12mm and have decent carvings, given the difficulty of producing clean images on bamboo.
They feature a Sprout #1 Bamboo, joined rod Bamboos, simple wan Craks, simple circles and Flowers and Gentlemanly Arts (sometimes called the Four Arts of the Scholar (who is one of the Four Noble Occupations))

It came with a hardback 2nd edition Jaques rulebook which interestingly gives the name of the enigmatic "English Enthusiast" as C M W Higginson.

Also a soft-back rulebook which I've not seen before. It has the same logo as on the box, so this may be original?
Plus a Chad Valley Score Calculator ... these last 3 items are worth the purchase price; and also a horn Ming (missing a South) 4 dice in a Cricket box and Bone counters.
If anybody has seen an Abbey set before, I'd like to know.

Four Winds Slide-top Casein Mah Jong Set 1.

Four Winds was a British maker who specialised in Casein sets, but also sold wooden ones, both with their distinctive pattern.
The slide-top box is made from sycamore (?) and measures 185x160x100mm.
The top is impressed with the Four Winds logo with remnants of gold paint in the impression.
These are quite rare boxes, so I'm very pleased to get this one at a very reasonable price.

The box opens to reveal 2 compartments for the tiles stacked in 6 layers of 6x4 and an empty section for the counters etc.

If you didn't know what this set was, you would be hard pushed to recognise it under all the dirt.
But it cleaned up very nicely and it contains a full set of 144 tiles - no spares.
The tiles are made from rounded Casein measuring 30x22x12mm, with the designs impressed into the surface while still soft, then painted.
The paint has not rubbed off too badly in this set, although the tiles are quite dirty.

I made this box based on the illustration in the booklet (see 3rd picture) that came with the set.
Made from reclaimed wood from a beech table top with mitred joints and strengthening fillets, slide-top, with a compartment for the dice and ming and an applied transfer on the slider.

This box is from the booklet, illustrating the style of box which I constructed.

The set is in great condition, with very vibrant paintwork, although the tiles are quite dirty
I have a full casein set in a traditional wooden box plus a couple of orphan sets of slightly different size and with curved backs, but all sporting their iconic perky bambird and the 'bone' style Bamboos.

Four Winds Trad Box Casein Mah Jong Set.

I spent a little too much on this very distressed, 130 piece set, missing 14 tiles and the sliding front. At the time I bought it I didn’t know of the Four Winds maker, but was very intrigued.
It is a very unusual set, tiles made from casein, featuring 1 bamboo of a bird perching on a stone and rounded bamboos.
The box is much better made than the usual Chinese product (very fine dovetails, precise shelf mounts and ingenious sprung restraints over & under the bottom drawer).
The box is falling apart and has a bad split, but it is repairable. The front can be re-created and it should buff up quite well.
The box was re-assembled with hide glue and lacquered using shellac.
A new front was made from mahogany with stylised sinograms carved into the elevated panel and filled with coloured filler - I have since found out the correct logo for the box, so I will make a new front (see the cutting from the Four Winds rulebook).
One nice touch is the casein Ming holding 4 coloured casein Wind indicators.

The box had shrunk laterally, so the drawers were protruding by 2mm which was just enough to prevent a new front cover sliding in (I suspect this is what broke the original).
I dismantled the box and drawers, removed the old lacquer, patched up the gaps with mahogany paste, glued the splits and reduced the depth of the drawers by 2mm.

Gray&Co Yellow Card Box Card Mah Jong Set.

In very good condition with little scuffing and no bends or dog-ears on the cards, the price of 7/6d on the back dates it to the 1960s or before.
The box measures 132x94x27mm.

An open red & yellow sleeve slides off to reveal a red rulebook by Gray, a scorepad and 4 sleeves each containing a suit of Mahjong.

The designs and logo style are direct copies of Babcock / Parker Bros, in small playing card form.

The cards are thin pasteboard measuring 61x41mm with remnants of gold on the edges.

Hamley's Blue Faux Crocskin Flip-top Bamboo Mah Jong Set.

Sold by the famous Hamley's Toy Store in Regent St. London, this cardboard box is covered in blue faux crocskin, with impressed gold sinograms on the flip top revealing the Hamley's label inside, and drop front, white interior housing 5 crocskin trays.
It measures 230x145x110mm with 4 trays holding the tiles and a 4-compartment tray to hold the counters, ming, dice and spare tiles.
The 144 tiles are nicely carved bamboo measuring 30x22x13mm. Craks and

Swooping sparrow #1 Bamboo, joined rod Bamboos.

Standard Flowers.

Simple Circles,

Simple wan Craks.

Hamley's Trad Box Wooden Mah Jong Set.

This had been listed before at the same price with no takers, but I think a fair price just for the box and nice aluminium counters.
Advertised as Chad Valley, but the sinograms on the front panel are Hamley’s, however the counters and style of tiles & booklet says Chad Valley.
The tiles are impressed & painted wood, measuring 30x21x13mm - nothing out of the ordinary, but well finished and possible a marriage, because I think it unlikely that a good quality box like this would only have cheap tiles.
The box measures 230x165x160mm, made from dovetailed light mahogany? and is coming apart, but easily glued; the rear panel is cracked and there is some missing wood at the rear LHS, again easily fixed; overall the box is in pretty good nick, apart from a bit of staining on the left base and the filling on the sinograms needs to be replaced.

Hamley's Trad Box Crazed Phenolic Mah Jong Set.

The box is a traditional sliding-front dovetailed camphor box measuring 220x155x150mm with a single handle in screwed pivots, and weighs 2.75kg = 6 pounds.
Retailed in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) by HW Cave & Co, of Colombo. I think he was a distributor of Hamley’s, judging by the logo sinograms, which is why I’ve included it here. The score card is by HW Cave & Co Ltd and describes the traditional scoring system.
The tiles measure 27x20x13mm with the designs very well carved.
The Arabic numerals are a later addition as they are squeezed in on some tiles.
The phenolic resin has turned almost chocolate brown, they have extensive crazing on all the carved tiles, but none on the 4 blank spares, indicating that the crazing emanates from the carvings, especially at the points. This crazing appears after production when the curing process has not completed fully, creating internal stress, and was a problem right up until the 1950s, when full control of the timing, temperature and ingredients was achieved.
I have other 'applejuice' tiles where the crazing is only visual, with no discernable cracks, whereas the crazing on these tiles can be easily felt with a fingernail and goes right the way through - I'm surprised they are still intact!

Quite elaborate circles.

Baton bamboos with pronounced nodes and a fat swooping crane,.

Complex wan characters.

The flowers are an unusual form and have no sinograms.

Harrods Faux Crocskin Black Bamboo Mah Jong Set.

The box is made from double thickness card covered in dark grey/green crocskin paper with blue paper on the inside. It measures 235mmx16mmx100mm.
The signature feature of Harrods boxes is the finger slot in the front panel to aid removal of the trays.
The label on top is almost illegible, especially in the photo; basically the gold print has rubbed away, barely leaving the impression of the text.
The black-stained bamboo tiles measure 32mmx22mmx10mm. and,
There is one tiny die, bone counting sticks and a black horn ming; it also has a very attenuated instruction leaflet from Harrods of 4 sides, 3 copies of a typed Special Hands sheet and rulebook from Jaques.
Considering the age, this is in great condition and it only needs a little attention to make it like new.

simple Circles with 'dartboard' #1

The Bamboos feature a swooping crane Bambird and joined rod Bamboos,

Simple wan Craks,

Flowers and Scholarly Arts.

Harrods Gingham Flip-top Bamboo Mah Jong Set.

Best offer of £60 accepted, which is more than I wanted to pay, but is offset by the inclusion of an Olga Racster book - these are vanishingly rare and worth that price alone (one on ABEBooks for £68).
The box is made from double thickness card covered in red gingham paper with blue paper on the inside measuring 235mmx16mmx100mm. The signature feature of Harrods boxes is the finger slot in the front panel to aid removal of the trays.
The bamboo tiles measure 31mmx21mmx11mm.
There is a cricket box with tiny dice, bone counting sticks and a black horn ming; it also has a very attenuated instruction leaflet from Harrods of 4 pages and a score card from Selfridges.
Considering the age, this is in great condition and it only needs a little attention to make it like new.

Flowers and Scholarly Arts.

Simple wan Craks.

The bamboos feature a very quirky flying sparrow Bambird, joined rod Bamboos.

Simple Circles.

Hickson Trad Box Ceramic Mah Jong Set.

A traditional oak box measuring 220x145x95mm with single handle and slide-front revealing 4 trays holding the ceramic tiles and a partitioned tray holding the wooden counters, bone dice and ceramic wind indicators.
The box has a slightly warped top, due to shrinkage of the back panel, a couple of cracks, but otherwise in excellent order.
I know of 3 of this style of set which all have booklets by Bertram Hickson, which feature images of the set, so I am confident that the set was made by Hickson.

The 144 tiles are ceramic measuring 30x22x11mm, glazed on 5 sides (bottom edge bare) with underglazed designs featuring swooping sparrow #1 bamboo, joined rod bamboos, simple circles, simple wan cracks and Flowers & Seasons all plants. They show a little crazing, but to be expected after 90 years.

Hickson Yellow Box Porcelain Mah Jong Set.

The sides of this box were completely covered with several layers of sellotape, the top hinge is detached from the base, all the vertical joints are split (trays too) and the sellotape residue is proving very difficult to remove successfully.

I finally got round to re-creating the old distressed box:- materials are heavy card, art card, faux leather Fablon, cotton tape and art paper - there are some improvements over the original: the corners are improved; there are brass stud feet; the hinges function better and the base is re-inforced. I re-used the original trays with re-inforced corners and re-covered them with art paper.
The logo was drawn on Visio and printed onto transfer paper.
The pics show the original next to the new - hopefully it will stand up better to the very heavy tiles.
I’ve had 4 of this style Hickson set - 2 are in other collections now.

The tiles are porcelain ceramic and very heavy, which obviously caused the above damage; they need no restoration (which would be very difficult, given their construction).

Pung Wo Junior Bamboo Mah Jong Set.

Cardboard box with lift-off lid, made by Mei Ren Co Shanghai around 1923 and marketed by British company Pung Wo .
The tiles are bamboo with little attempt at finishing, so the designs are pretty crudely done, but the swooping sparrow and the form of the bamboo suit are unusual.
Other than a bit of gentle cleaning of the tiles, this needs nothing done to it.

Pung Wo Card Box Bamboo Mah Jong Set.

Bought from Belgium, slightly over-priced, but it is in very good condition, only slight scuffing and a little dirty.
Pung Wo was a British maker with a large factory in China - which was news to me - see the back page of the rulebook.
The box measures 230x130x135mm made from heavy card, with flip-top, drop front and 4 shelves holding 5 trays, 4 with bass pulls.
The smallish chunky tiles are made from good quality bamboo, fairly well carved, measuring 28x21x11mm, well-used with nice patina.
They feature the standard set with the exception of the swooping sparrow #1 Bamboo.
It comes with a nice horn ming with extra discs, bone counting sticks, an original Pung Wo rulebook and a French booklet by Pierre Manaut.

Pung Wo Trad Box B&B Mah Jong Set.

Bought from a local auction house, I viewed this but the light was so poor I thought that this was a badly-made black-stained pine box, but the ephemera with the set prompted a good bid.
In fact it is rosewood, in very good condition, only missing a handle (easily replaced), RH slider and a piece of brass (replaced).
The box cleaned up nicely, measuring 240x165x170mm, with the usual sliding door revealing 5 drawers with brass flap pulls.
But the interesting thing (to me) is the label on the back of the door, which matches the Pung Wo booklet and the sinograms on the front panel, so this is definitely a Pung Wo Set.
Also included is the original packing slip which states that it was sourced from the Mei Ren Company in Shanghai, incidentally the same supplier to Mah Jongg Sales of America (Babcock).

The tiles are decent quality, a bit dirty, but nothing special about them, measuring 31x21x14mm with 6mm bone to nice dovetail.
They feature a displaying peacock Bambird, joined rod Bamboos, simple wan Craks, simple Circles with unusual #1, standard Winds and Dragons wnd all Plant Flowers.

Selfridge Red Card Box Wood Mah Jong Set #2.

A Buy It Now at a reasonable price for one these rare sets - this makes 2 that I have.
A bit of a mish-mash; set made for Selfridges, retailed by Gamages, booklet copyright Chad Valley, printed by Cowan de Groot & Ross, London, but only 1 sheet!
Tiles measure 31x21x13mm, made from beech with printed glossy paper on top and grey paper bottom, (a bit of wrinkling).
They feature unusual flapping crane Bambird, rounded Bamboos and out-of-the-ordinary flowers - I've not seen this style of Bamboo before, although the rest have some affinities with Chad Valley, I've no doubt that this was made for Selfridges.
The box measures 200x135x85mm, is completely collapsed, but in remarkable condition, it only needs a bit of glue and some matching paint and it will be like new - way better than the first one I got (but that was only £1).

Flat Box Redback Hollow Polystyrene Mah Jong Set.

There is a bit of a story to this one:-
I had thought it was a redback casein set, but the seller obviously wasn't sure; a previous eBay posting of an identical (but warped) set had it listed as ceramic?
Anyway, I didn't bid, but a colleague in Hawaii won it and asked me about it, so I gave my thoughts pending its arrival.
After a 10,000 mile trip, it arrived and it was evident that it would be impossible to find spares, so no good for NMJL play.
After a few questions and answers it became clear that this was not casein or ceramic, but polystyrene... however, a decision was made to send the set to me, as I was so interested in it... YES!
So, after another trip halfway round the world, it comes back to the UK.
It's a large flat box with hinged top revealing the trays and racks, measuring 475x230x57mm.
The trays are well made with protruding bottom for easy stacking, and flocked interior.
The tiles are a 2-part hollow polystyrene moulding which clip nicely together; a few of them are split, revealing the ejector marks from the moulding machine.
They measure 32x23x11mm with square-edged 3mm white top and rounded 9mm (including registration ledge) red bottom.
The designs are intriguing; they are impressed, but I think not by a machine - the registration is too random and the impressed depth too variable.
One could be forgiven for thinking they are carved (I was fooled by the photos) as the impress dies leave a very fine crisp image.
These are much better than any other polystyrene set I've seen - on a par with casein sets.
Update:- The same set (with beige backs) appeared on eBay UK with Chad Valley and generic Chinese rulebooks, but the tiles are hellishly warped... this makes 3 that I know of. And another appeared in early 2019, but this one has the maker's name, E.V.B. Plastics Ltd. Grace’s Guide lists them at Redhill, Surrey, with 1947 British Industries Fair Advert for Mah Jongg 'Beautifully Moulded in Plastic'.

Yamanaka Yellow Box Carton Mah Jong Set
This was advertised as having 132 tiles, so I assumed that there were a few missing, but no... There is a full set of the 3 suits and Winds, but there are no Flowers and only the Red & Green Dragons.
They are absolutely pristine, no signs of wear at all, even the counters are still in their original wrapping, so I can only assume that the White dragons were seen as just blanks and either discarded or not included - I suspect the latter, as there is no space in the box for any more pieces. However, I just bought another of these which has 144 tiles, but still no Flowers.
The designs are lifted almost directly from Chad Valley, so this leads me to believe that the set was assembled as a complimentary gift from the London Yamanaka store.
Interestingly there is included a scorecard from Yamanaka, which refers to Flowers, so why include it in this set?
The box is lift-top, made from white card covered in yellow paper and the Mah Jongg logo in black script (reminiscent of the DeLaRue logo) measuring 190x127x28mm.
The tiles measure 29x20x5mm, made from a central core of compressed fibre and coarse-grained cartridge paper on front and rear with the designs impressed in 3 colours.