SLOPER on MAH-JONGG

If you have a set with only 2 jokers but 14 flowers, it was probably made in America in the early 1960's. Domestic set manufacturing was feasible from the late 1920s and continuing into the 1960s. At some point, though, cheaper Chinese imports caused all the American manufacturers to go out of business. Those Chinese companies aren't necessarily sure what the NMJL requires, so Chinese sets made today often come with extra flowers and jokers (more than 8F/8J).

* I had a reader in 2010 report that she had a 1940's American set with 2 joker tiles. Contributor Gina Smith added: "There were a couple of sets that had two jokers in their tile set in the 1940's. MET games was one with the Buddha jokers (2), and Ten Flowers sets (with the Happy face and Kibitzer joker - one of each) was another that comes to mind. There was a Chinese Bakelite set that also had two jokers, but of course we don't know the manufacturer on those."

In my collection I have a couple of Chinese-made bone-and-bamboo sets with joker tiles. I used to think those sets were from the 1930s, but now think they might be from as late as the sixties or thereabouts. Some Chinese sets come with joker tiles, and I have no reliable data as to when that practice began. Inclusion of joker tiles might or might not have originated in America, and it could have started anytime from the 1920s on.

From FAQ 19-AI: [In the 1960s] People had to cobble together sets to make the number of flowers required. They'd even take whole sets, paste flower decals on all of them, and pass them around to their friends. Flower tiles often didn't match the rest of the set, so a whole schtick evolved called "planting flowers." There wasn't any mystery about which tiles in the wall were flowers, but they would place flowers at pre-arranged spots in the wall - and probably apportion a certain number of them to each player as part of the distribution of tiles.

Finally, note that the above table is meant to be used as a tool for determining the approximate age of mah-jongg sets that were intended by their manufacturers for playing American-style mah-jongg (NMJL rules). There is no guarantee that a set matching the flower/joker count in the table was definitely made during the years associated with that F/J count.