Michigan Oriental Art Society
Sunday, February 9, 2015
St John Hospital-Oakland Education Center, 27351 Dequindre Rd, Madison Heights
(between 11 Mile and 12 Mile Rds)
Social Time at 1:30 pm, Meeting at 2:00
pm.
THE GAME
OF MAHJONG
Janice
Schimmelman
Mahjong, a game of strategy and luck, was originally played as a card game in nineteenth-century China, then as a game using tiles. In 1920 American businessman Joseph Babcock, who played the game in China, simplified and published its first rule book in English, thereby making it accessible to a western audience. American companies, such as Abercrombie & Fitch and Mah Jongg Sales of America (later purchased by Parker Brothers), quickly began importing sets. By 1923 it was all the rage, even Eddie Cantor sang a parody of the new fad, Since Ma Is Playing Mahjong, in the Broadway musical Kid Boots. Soon celluloid and French Ivory sets competed with the original materials of bone and bamboo, and by the 1930s they were also being made of bakelite and similar materials. Although most devotees of the game faded after 1929, it was still popular among Jewish players, and in 1937 they established the first mahjong organization, the National Mah Jongg League.
Mahjong was a social game which brought
family and friends together. Indeed, at its height people often decorated rooms
and dressed in the ‘Chinese’ fashion. It still is a social game, one made even
more enjoyable by playing with vintage sets. This talk will focus on the
variety of mahjong sets produced during the early decades of the game.
Jan Schimmelman is Professor Emerita of Art History at
Oakland University where she taught American Art, English Art, Renaissance Art,
and Baroque Art. She has also authored a number of books on American art
bibliography, and American and French nineteenth-century photography. Among the
things she collects are vintage mahjong sets.
GUESTS ARE WELCOME TO
ATTEND!
