My dear friend Jan is SO creative and clever!
Upon her move to Florida – and after the sale of most of her earthly possessions – Jan no longer had a card table and her new dining room table was just the wrong size for the perfect Mah Jongg game. So, being the very creative person she is, Jan had her equally creative husband create a board to put over her dining room table that would work perfectly for all those lively Mah Jongg games. However, Jan was not content to just have a plain painted board to play our beloved game…no, Jan needed that board to be special. And so, she painted amazing dragons in each corner. Check these photos out – what a fabulous job she did! Hopefully I will visit Jan soon and have the opportunity to play at this fabulous table! Enjoy these photos! Continue reading
Tag Archives: dragons
MORNING MAHJ…
Nothing like hosting a brunch and lots of Mah Jongg in the morning. What could be a better way to start the day? 
And what better way to end the day with this self-picked and really fun Mah Jongg hand of FFFF DDDD DD DDDD.
I was so lucky to pick those three Jokers because no one was discarding Flowers!
SO PROUD!!!
I’m so proud of all my Mah Jongg students and love it when they send me photos of their successful hands. Peggy, who really was a quick study from the beginning, sent me a photo of her wonderful winning WINDS/DRAGONS hand of FFFF N EE WWW SSSS and called it her “Happy Hand!” It made me happy, too, to see my students attempt – and succeed at – the more difficult closed hands. Great job, Peggy!
PE-LING/MAH JONGG/SENIOR SET?!
S1 has a friend with an interesting Pe-Ling set. It says on the box, “Senior Set”…I wonder what that means? Could it be that this was made for people of a certain age…
I did a little research on Pe-Ling and, although it looks just like an inexpensive Mah Jongg set, apparently Pe-Ling tried to advertise itself as something different from the game we know and love. What I really think is that Pe-Ling was just another name for the mysterious and exotic game of Mah Jongg, similar to all those other names such as Man Chu, Mah Diao, Ma Chong, Pung Chow, Ching Chong, Kong Chow, Mah Deuck, Mah Cheuk, Ma Chiang, Mah Lowe, Game of Four Winds, The Ancient Game of the Mandarins, and Ma Jiang, just to name a few!
Perhaps some of you out there can enlighten us further on Pe-Ling. Here is what I was able to learn:
The manufacturer might have tried to convince people that the game rules were unique but I don’t believe that is the case. This was one of those sets that were manufactured for the American market around the mid-1920s and, as I wrote above, was probably a very inexpensive set. Fun to see but not worth much especially now with the box in horrible shape and the tiles looking filthy (although that shouldn’t take away from its value – they can always be cleaned) and not of any exotic or beautiful material. However, there is no question that the suits and other tiles are definitely of interesting designs.
That is not the One Bam shown here with the Bam suit – the Green Dragon is in its place in these photos. It appears that the One Bam is mixed in with the Flowers although, unfortunately, it is very hard to see those tiles in the photos that were sent to S1; you can get a glimpse of the One Bam in the third picture below.
It does seem that all the tiles are there…there are 144 tiles, including all the suits we would normally find – Bams, Dots, and Craks plus Winds, Dragons, and Flowers plus counting sticks and other accessories. Its makeup certainly looks like a typical Mah Jongg set to me! And, even though this set is not exactly in pristine condition, I find it very interesting that the included Pe-Ling booklet looks to be very well preserved.
I would love to know more about Pe-Ling – if any of you have some information please send it to me so I can share it with everyone.
And, most important of all to me…what does “Senior Set” mean?!!!
THANK YOU FOR SHARING…
Caren H. has been kind enough to share some beautiful photos from her gorgeous Coronet Mah Jongg set. And not only is this set incredible but her photography skills are quite amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
Coronet was not as prolific as some of the other Mah Jongg manufacturers. This is their only style – made of Bakelite – and it is unique to them. BTW, there is a Coronet set in our book, Mah Jongg – The Art of the Game. In it we note that Coronet used colors not seen in other sets, such as cerulean blue and bright gold highlights. But what really knocked us out are the Dragons blowing smoke. Only in a Coronet set will you see such a fabulous image!
Please note that these photos are shown here by the generous permission of Caren and they are copyrighted under her name which means they cannot be copied or reproduced in any form without her permission.
If you have photos of any unusual Mah Jongg sets, please send them to me so that I might share them with everyone. What a treat!
BTW, Amazon’s website today lists our book as the following: #1 New Release in Antique & Collectible Porcelain & China…WOW!!!
MAH JONGG WEDNESDAY!
In between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there is still time for Mah Jongg…and yesterday was my turn to host the OMs at our Wednesday game. We started out with a summery lunch – even though it is now October – since the weather has been warm and sticky. First we had Chilled Cucumber Soup with Shrimp followed by Pic’s Fresh Crab Salad with Lime Juice and three yummy cheeses – D’Affinois, Piave, and Humboldt Fog (as always, recipes will follow tomorrow – all are easy and delicious and from recipes by Ina Garten/Barefoot Contessa).
Mah Jongg and Me 