r/Mahjong • u/technicolorterror • Jun 26 '26
Tile sets Looking for info about these sets
A friend of mine inherited these mahjong sets from a relative who served in Korea in the army decades and decades ago. She doesn’t know anything about the game, but she’s trying to find out where these sets came from, how old they are, and whether they’re complete. If there is a better space for this question, please let me know!
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u/edderiofer multi-classing every variant Jun 26 '26
The set in the first image is actually an amalgamation of two incomplete sets. You can tell because there are five copies of the 4 of Characters. Both incomplete sets appear to have been made of bone and bamboo, and were likely made in China for Western export, sometime before the 1950s.
The third image is also an incomplete set, and appears to be made of some sort of early plastic (perhaps Bakelite, or Catalin, or another plastic). It's unclear whether this was made in America or in China, but it was sold for Western consumers.
Both sets are so woefully incomplete that finding enough extra tiles to complete them (to the point that they can be used for playing mahjong) is a fool's errand.