I lied

No, that's not quite true. But I did tell an untruth, although it was completely by mistake, when I wrote yesterday that I have one heirloom. Later in the evening my daughter telephoned and I earwigged to Mrs S's side of the conversation for a while. Something she said reminded me that I have another family heirloom tucked away in a cupboard. Although whether or not it can be correctly classified as an heirloom is, I suppose, open to question since it has only been passed down one generation.

My father served some 22 years in the Navy and, in the course of his service, visited a lot of places, including Hong Kong. It was on a visit to that port sometime in the late 1940s that he watched the peices of a mah jong set being carved. He told the man doing the work that he would buy the set if English numerals were carved on the pieces. Whether that was done while my father waited or whether he returned the next day I am not sure, but he did buy that mah jong set. Back on board, the ship's carpenter made a cabinet for the set, a wooden box with a sliding front that lifts to reveal a set of drawers, each lined with green baize, in which the mah jong set fits beautifully.

The mah jong pieces themselves are works of art. They are ivory fitted with bamboo backs, the fitting being dove-tail joints. The joints are so good that the pieces feel as though they are made of one single material; there is no sensation of a join when a finger is rubbed along the side. Then there is the carving and painting of each piece. I must try to take a picture of some of them to post here and share.