American Western Bone Bamboo Mahjong with Bats
When mahjong first caught on in America in the 1920s, the elegant sets imported from Shanghai looked like this: finely polished cases made from elm and rosewood and hand painted tiles made from cattle bone and bamboo. This set is a reproduction of those classic sets, crafted by hand from white cattle bone and Chinese bamboo. The case cover is inlaid with a bone design of bats. Bats are a symbol of good luck in Chinese (and particularly among mahjong players), as the Chinese word for bat ''fu'' is a homonym for the word for luck. Please note that this is a hand made mahjong set made with natural materials using traditional methods. Each tile is cut and carved one piece a time, and the characters are inked by hand. Hand cut bone and bamboo tiles are slightly smaller than fiberglass mahjong tiles, and coloring and shape varies slightly from tile to tile and set to set.