unusual design

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This lovely set with thick bone is elaborately carved. It was not intended for export as can be seen by the lack of Arabic numbers on these tiles. The Bams are in the elaborate, "barbed" form, with lovely shadings on the stalks. The crane, signifying longevity, is swooping on the One Bam.

Many of us feel these monochromatic sets are Japanese in origin, but Michael Stanwick, one of the best Mahjong historians, does not feel we can make that assumption. He feels this set was most probably made in Shanghai, and exported to Japan.

Michael's website can be seen by clicking here.

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The One Dot is the flower within a flower we have seen before, and the other Dots continue in the flower design, with their centers being the five petaled plum blossom, a favorite of the Chinese. It symbolizes the five blessings: health, wealth, virtue, longevity, and dying a natural death.

This is a good online quick spot to find symbolism on tiles:

http://primaltrek.com/impliedmeaning.html

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The elaborate form of the Wan is seen here. Craks (and Winds) are the hardest to "read" if the player is unfamiliar with Chinese writing, but a little bit of study to learn the numbers can really open up your play opportunities.D571_35

Here the Winds are laid out as they should be in play: East, South, West and North. You will note the Flowers are a slightly different color than the other tiles. This often happens in sets played with according to some Asian ways of play, because Flowers are often not used or are used as bonus tiles, thus they "age" differently.

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This set opened up quite a few eyes when it appeared on ebay. The open drawer revealed elaborate framed Craks, similar to some seen in the collection of the former Japan Mah Jong Museum. It is easy to see why so many people looked to see what the other tiles looked like.

 

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The Bams with their stylized leaves are fabulous. The winds have frames reminiscent of the strings of cash seen in some early sets.

 

 

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The Dots change from a flower within a flower on the One Dot to a flower within a circle on the others. The One Bam is a very stylized phoenix. As is the case with some sets designed for Asian play, there are no Flowers, although it is possible that the Flowers were lost along with one of the other tiles.

 

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The One Bam is delightful, and the bird almost likes like it could be singing. The other Bams are simple rods.

 

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The Craks look like they are running off the tiles.

 

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The One Dot is unusual in that it combines a flower blossom center with squares set at different angles in the circle. The red 8 Dots are seen from time to time.

 

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The light touch seen on the Crak carving is evident here as well. The Green and Red Dragons are like those used in the Mah-Jongg Sales Company of America, and this may well be one of their early sets. The Green here is the word for a male Phoenix, and the red is the word for Dragon.

 

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The Flowers represent the four arts of the Scholar and the four plants of the seasons.

Our thanks to the people at Mahjongmahjong for providing these photographs.

To see more of their personal collection, click here.

http://www.mahjongmahjong.com/vintage_mahjong_pc/bone_bb34.htm

 

 

 

 

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DSC_0456 I love this set. It is hand carved and painted, and highly unusual. The tiles are made of bright white laminate glued onto black painted wood backs. The graphics are very different, and the artist has taken great liberties with the real looks of the Chinese words and numbers. The choice of colors is interesting, and one of the few, perhaps only, times I have seen pinks and lilacs used.

I think the One Dots may have had a special center, because all four of them now look like someone might have carved into them to inset something.

Here is the comparison of Winds of this set with those from the one made by the Chinese Game Company, another highly stylized set seen earlier this week.

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This little set is quite delightful in the designs seen on the tiles. The Craks are painted with a bit of flair, and the Dots have plum blossom centers. (Plum blossoms have five petals, symbolizing the five blessings. ) I think the One Bam bird has a lot of spirit, and the other Bams are unusual with their white striped markings. One set of the Flower tiles has the flowers often seen on these tiles. The Red and Green Dragons have the traditional letters and symbols on them: Green has the F for Fa (prosperity) and Red has C for Chung (Center). The White Dragon has the P for Po (blank).

 

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These are wind indicators. Interestingly they have some French words (Nord, Est, Sud but not Ouest for West) for the directions, but English words for the seasons and flowers. These pieces of wood are quite big, each about the size of 12 tiles put together. The Winds have a lot of "personality" in the way they are painted.

 

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The set came in this sweet cardboard box with wooden button drawer pulls.

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Chinese Games Company
Chinese Game Company

Chinese Game Company was based in Montreal, Canada. It made fabulous hand-carved and painted Mahjong sets.

You can see here the Bamboo sprout One Bam, very much resembling a pineapple which many people call it.  The bright colors and unique arrangement of the Dots are also hallmarks of these sets. If you look carefully at the Dots, from the 4 Dot upward, you will notice that those four dots stay constant in their positions and colors, and other dots are just added to the tile, making the carving much simpler.

The red Flowers show a fisherman, musician, farmer and scholar. The green Flowers have an unusual placement of the 2. None of the Flowers have a Chinese word on them.

The Dragons are old style. The Green is the symbol Fa for prosperity, the Red Chung for center, and the White P for Po meaning white blank.

Chinese Game NEWS
Chinese Game NEWS

These wind markers came with the set. The color goes really well with the paint on the tiles. Sadly the West was lost, but desperation prevailed, and a new bit of the set's history came about.

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The brass box with 5 drawers, tiles and wood racks
The brass box with 5 drawers, tiles and wood racks. Often a drawer would be used for counting/betting sticks, dice and mings which indicate wind direction.

 

This delightful brass box holds an equally lovely set of Mahjong tiles. The panel which forms the front of the box has a man in a boat, similar to those often seen on some Chinese Bakelite Flower tiles. The wood racks were early versions and were only used to keep a player's Mahjong tiles secret; when a tile was called, that grouping would be placed on the tabletop.

Small brass box with fine carving
Small brass box with fine etching and tile and quarter used for scale

Note the lovely flowers seen on the back of this box. As in many very expensive sets, this box was designed to have all its sides seen. The box handles are very heavy, giving an important look to the box.

Unusual Flower tiles and soaring swallow One Bam
Unusual Flower tiles and Soaring Swallow One Bam

The Flower tiles on this set feature modes of transportation and types of buildings. The unusual One Dots have linear interiors, and the others are circles within circles. The Bams are of the simple rod type. One of the Flowers features a man in a boat, similar to the one seen on the front panel of the box. The tiles are in exceptional condition, with few of the streaks often seen in the bone and bamboo sets. The counting sticks are smooth, unlike the more ragged appearance of those in less expensive sets.

http://www.invaluable.com/catalog/viewLot.cfm?afRedir=true&lotRef=4f482f267b&scp=c&ri=1350

 

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folk art Flowers
folk art Flowers

These delightful Mahjong Flowers seem like folk art to me. They are well carved, but the images are very simple. Although it is hard to know exactly what birds and bugs are seen on the tiles, there is a very faintly visible butterfly on the Red 1, more visible on the Red 2. Birds appear on the Blue 1 and 3 and Red 3 and perhaps 4. I must confess, I love the Blue and Red 4s, although I have no idea what insects or creatures they are!

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I was really lucky: I bought this Fulton Specialty Company Mahjong set for $8.50 on ebay. The graphics on this wood set are delightful and rank among some of the best designs I have seen. I love the One and Two! Bams, and the others as well. A lot of thought went into the designs for all the tiles, and they are different from what we usually see, including the placement of the dots and Bams on each tile.  The two colors used for the Craks confused me at first; when I received the set and was trying to lay out the suits to figure out what everything was, I could not find the low number Craks. The Chinese numbers were so stylized I did not recognize them! The Craks were painted with two different colors, adding to the unusual appearance. A coating of green paint was placed on the backs of the tiles, giving them a two-tone look. (I think the 4 Crak is upside down-sorry!)

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Notice the number 2 is in the center of the circles, the arrangement of the other circles, and the Bams.

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Aren't these dragons fabulous!

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I love these cranes. (Cranes are symbols for longevity)

 

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Colorful counting sticks are part of the set.

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This great dragon is on the box top.

Thanks to CHarli's website for helping me to identify this set.

www.13orphans.com

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This set was recently sold at auction. It is deeply carved, and the ratio of bone to bamboo is very high. In Bone and Bamboo sets, the more bone, the more expensive the set. Notice how beautifully carved all the tiles are, and how the carver included creatures in the tile designs. The Bams are leaves, the Dots are mostly peaches, and the Craks are framed with what looks like stylized peaches and bats (symbols of longevity). Elongated peacocks frame the Green Dragon, and phoenixes frame the Red. Interestingly, as in many old sets, the White Dragon is a plain white tile. The East Winds are framed with what is perhaps a fox, and three other birds surround the other Winds. The Flowers appear to show scenes connected with a wedding.

Please copy and paste the following link

www.liveauctioneers.com/item/21587376_chinese-mahjong-set