There are some unusual details in these Flower tiles that belong to the set discussed yesterday. The gold numbers seen on the suits have continued onto the left hand Flower tiles.

The boats are delightful, and the fishing pole sticking out from the shelter of the boat's cover on tile 2 is a lovely touch. The two flying birds on the West tile are done with more precision than usual. Tile 4 shows us a lotus blossom and bud, and the blossom also appears over the stair railing (an especially detailed one.) The lotus is the symbol of purity, and is one of the Eight Buddhist precious things (Wolfram Eberhard A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols). According to Patricia Bjaaland Welch in her book Chinese Art: A guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, when the lotus flower and bud are shown together they symbolize "the union or marriage and fertility."  Orchids appear on the East and #3 tiles, and a chrysanthemum on the West.

The tiles can be translated as:

Right hand set are North=Winter, East=Spring, West=Autumn, South=Summer (Dong, Chun, Qiu, Xia).

Left hand set are 1=West, 2=Lake, 3=Beautiful, 4=View.  So that's "Beautiful view of the West Lake".  (Xi, Hu, Jia, Jing).

A mention of the West Lake appears quite frequently on Flower tiles

Click here to read more about West Lake

 

The gold letters continue here.

Our thanks to Ray Heaton for the translations and to Mahjongmahjong for the photographs.

 

To see more of this set, click here

http://www.mahjongmahjong.com/vintage_mahjong_pc/bone_bb8.htm