I was catching up on Pinterest today which led me to Etsy where I found something very interesting – an opportunity to purchase an original Mahjong game by the Deshler Purchasing Agency of Shanghai from around 1923. This is not a tile set but rather, a very early version of Mah Jongg played with cards. All the regular suits, honors, winds, etc., are part of the game but they are made of paper instead of the material we usually see from sets made in China such as bone and bamboo. I found this particularly interesting because it is the Deshler set that is pictured in my new book, Mah Jongg: The Art of the Game (always happy to get in a plug for the book!):
Mah Jongg and Me 