New York department stores but sales were disappointing, so Parker declined. Hammond, meanwhile, used marketing promotions in West Coast department stores. Players got free lessons and bought sets, Chinese clothing and decorations. The campaign sparked excitement. Everyone wanted this new game. Newspapers picked up the story, sales skyrocketed, and George Parker took notice. He bought the trademark and copyright from Babcock’s company. Unfortunately, the Mah Jongg wars would soon come to a head.
Above This photograph was taken by Edward Steichen (1879–1973) for Vogue, c. 1925. The caption read in part: “Close-up of the hands of model and writer Ilka Chase as she plays with mah-jongg tiles: rope of pearls wrapped around one wrist; on the other arm an emerald and diamond bracelet (the emerald conceals a timepiece), and a diamond bracelet; an emerald-cut diamond ring; all from Cartier.”
Babcock’s Mah-Jongg Sales Company of America had signature designs, including the Green Phoenix and Red Dragon and One Dots with “Free Mah-Jongg” in the center. This version has continuous Flower tiles with Chinese scenes.
Babcock’s “Style No. 8,” set in a rosewood box, which retailed for $100. The top features eight-petaled rosettes, brass handles, and butterflies, and its sides depict Chinese coins. An ivory button opens the door of the box. No detail was overlooked in the design and manufacture of a set meant to have a place of honor in the home.
Right In addition to a Mah Jongg box, a radio set was a must-have in any well-appointed parlor. These women are learning how to play the game by listening to the instructions on the new electronic marvel.
Advanced players objected when novices made cheap quick wins, thwarting high-scoring wins, so various rules were devised to prevent cheap wins. Many competing books and rules confused and discouraged new players. Auction Bridge and Mah-Jongg Magazine, Vanity Fair, and the Herald-Tribune published polls to determine the most favored rules. The publisher of Auction Bridge, John H. Smith, formed the Standardization Committee of the American Official Laws of Mah-Jongg, consisting of Mah Jongg authors Robert Foster, Lee Hartman, Milton Work, Joseph Babcock, and Smith. The poll revealed three rule sets at the top: Mixed Hand (the Chinese rules), Cleared Hand (a hand must include tiles of no more than one suit), and One Double (minimum high score required). The three were incorporated into the Official Laws, but it was too late. The enthusiasm for Mah Jongg was fading.
After the initial craze ended, Mah Jongg evolved into many different national and regional variants. Were it not for Babcock, this enduring game might never have spread so far and wide.
This “Tuxedo” set has wooden tiles covered by a thin wafer of French Ivory laminate. If the name of that swanky enclave in Upstate New York could not give the game cachet, then certainly the brass plaque, placed by Parker Brothers, would.
Overleaf Many companies tried to compete with Babcock. These are some of their books of rules. A British version of Babcock’s ubiquitous Red Book of Rules is at lower right, along with clippings of his syndicated column “Mah-Jongg” from the Wichita Beacon in 1924.
Detail of the lid of a box of game cards made by Deshler Imports of Shanghai.
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| CHAPTER 3 Paper Mah Jongg Sets |
Mah Jongg began as a paper game from the ancient Chinese card game Ma Taio, but as it caught on in the early twentieth century a “paper” Mah Jongg set came to mean a deck of playing cards, or simply cardboard squares where each individual piece mimicked a specific Mah Jongg tile. While such sets were generally considered as novel, they were also a lot cheaper and more portable than their more durable bone, bamboo, and Bakelite cousins. And, unlike those tiles where images were limited by the process of carving or stamping into a hard material, the designs on paper Mah Jongg sets were limited only by the imagination of the printer or designer.
England had two major manufacturers of paper Mah Jongg games. The first was Chad Valley, a toy manufacturer that made decks of cards whose suits were vibrant and colorful, especially the Dragons. But it is the set by card maker Thomas de la Rue of London that can be argued is the apotheosis of Mah Jongg design. Their “Electrical Mah Jong” deck, commissioned by the Western Electric Company Ltd, extolled the marvels of electrical utilities for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. On beautifully laminated gold-edged cards, flamenco dancers and Eskimos share a deck featuring vacuum tubes as Bams and wire cables as Dots. Flowers recount the evolution of telephony. It is a masterpiece of artistry for a paper Mah Jongg set.
Many early paper examples, such as the Deshler set from Shanghai, are shaped like Ma Taio cards, whose thin vertical format was already known to the Chinese. The unusual looking set by Golconda also shares that format, telling an ancient Chinese story on lithographed paper with far more detail than could be told on Bakelite or Bone.
This Craftmaster cardboard set resembles folk art. It came with Wind indicators, racks, and dice. The counting sticks have unusual designs, with stripes instead of dots.
Chad Valley, the British toy maker, made this brightly colored paper set.
Right Golconda cards, with characters from the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, have highly detailed illustrations. Note the soaring bird One Bam in the top row, second from right.
Deshler’s paper set came in this charming box, its lid illustrated with a family playing the game. The East position is indicated at the top of the box.
This wonderful traveling leather set by London card maker Thomas de la Rue is enhanced with a gold-embossed Art Deco logo. The color red denotes good luck.
Printed by Thomas de la Rue in 1924, “Electrical Mah Jong” is one of the most beloved versions of the game. The cards have distinctly modern designs, with telephones as Craks, radios as Bams, and cables as Dots. Winds are illustrated by “inhabitants” of the four cardinal directions: North, an Eskimo;
