The ‘Standard Rules of Mah-Jongg’
I recently acquired a vintage Chad Valley mahjong set which had inside it a copy of the 1924 edition of The Standard Rules of Mah-Jongg.
The booklet explains that ‘leading London Stores’ including Harrods, Selfridges, Whiteleys, Hamleys, Lilywhites and Army & Navy requested Chad Valley and ‘a Canadian author of another book on Mah-Jongg’ to collaborate to produce a standardised set of rules. The previous eight editions of the Chad Valley rule book, the preface explains, was based ‘solely on the play as it obtains in the leading clubs of Hong-Kong and Shanghai.’ This ninth edition, published in 1924, announces that ‘these are now the rules recognised in London and players can safely base their game upon them.’
This booklet tells us a number of things about mahjong in Britain in 1924. Firstly, the game ws marketed as an ancient game in China: ‘Played in China for many centuries, this game has achieved instant popularity in English speaking countries …’ Second, it refers to the clubs in British controlled territories as being an authoritative source of the rules of play in London. Third, it tells us that by 1924 there were already many books written on the rules of mahjong in English and that they varied on the method of play and scoring, so much so that a standardised set of rules was called for.
The set in which I found this booklet is also interesting. Made of neither bamboo or bone the tiles are composed of a light wood, probably balsa wood, onto which a printed design has been attached and laminated.
There are 144 tiles, each of which includes a romanised letter or number to aid identification. The content of the tiles follows the common form of three suits (wan, bing and tiao), four winds, three dragons and eight flower and season tiles.
It is encased in a long oblong box that contains trays for the tiles along with four wooden tile stands, dice and an East Wind indicator.
The box bears two characters, the second of which is imperfect, making the whole unreadable. I have seen this combination of characters on other older sets produced by British companies.
The box also proudly proclaims that the set was made Chad Valley in England, which perhaps goes some way to explaining the strange characters.