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Hello. I have this wonderful Mah Jong set. There are many Mah Jong sets like this around these days. However, this one is interesting to me. First, it has Made in China carved into the face. But even more interesting, I think, is that this set, which is in perfect condition and complete in every way, still has its instruction book. This instruction book is held together by thread(no staples). Very old and held together by a single thread, it is remarkable that this instruction book is still intact and in excellent condition. Here is what this instruction book says on the cover page:

Directions for Playing "Ma-Joe"

Zee Yung Sung & Co
In the Middle way of the Small East Gate, Street.
Shanghai, China


I can find no date anywhere in this instruction book, though because of its age and its fragile nature, I do not wish to handle it much.

Is this just another run-of-the-mill Mah-Jong set or is this something special that a serious collector might want?

I would appreciate any information at all about this Mah-Jong set. Thank you.

This appears to be a mah-jong set made for travelers, possibly for foreigners since the booklet was printed in English, possibly for Jewish because there were a lot of Jewish escaped to China (from Russia) during WWII and learned how to play mah-jong. It was in Shanghai and therefore may be why it was called ma-joe. Possibly made during the 30s or 40s. It is interesting to see four regular-sized blank ma-jong blocks came with the set, what were they made of? Hard to give it a value though.

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