Many people think they have ivory mahjong sets either because they assume they do or that is what they have been told.
Ivory mahjong tiles.
Bone bone is by far the most common material used in antique chinese mah jongg sets and it is usually dove tailed with bamboo.
This set is pure ivory.
Antique chinese mah jongg set bone bamboo wood chest case dice 1920 s.
Ending oct 8 at 12 39pm pdt 5d 5h.
This is a quality set of mah jong tiles.
Antique mahjong bovine bone bamboo set in case plus 4 old footed wood racks.
Deeply carved well painted and a good weight.
Ivory was in very short supply in china in the 1920s and china was a poor country then.
Only a few sets would have ever been made of ivory and many of these would have been made for the export market as could be seen with western indices on the tiles instead of just chinese characters and numbers.
Antique butterscotch bakelite mah jong set 152 tiles 5 racks.
You can see the criss cross chevron pattern known as schreger lines on the top two tiles.
But just because tiles are not made of ivory does not mean they are less valuable.
Notice the fine vertical lines created to make the tiles look like ivory which is why celluloid of this type was referred to as french ivory but the grain is too regular to be ivory.
People who have tiles that are a combination of a white material and bamboo often think their sets are made of ivory and bamboo but usually their sets are bone and bamboo.