Tag Archives: hand-carved mahjong tiles

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Butterflies frequently appear in Chinese art and in Mahjong. The first image you'll see is a black and white photograph of a woman's jacket from the early 19th Century in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum.

 

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but I looked further and found this beautiful color close-up

 

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How beautiful is that? The butterflies are iridescent, multi-patterned and just breath-taking. (thank goodness for color photography!)

 

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And here are some simpler ones, with beautiful patterns nonetheless, on a vase from the late 17th Century, once again from the Metropolitan Museum. The ribbons seen between the butterflies add to the auspiciousness of the butterflies.

Butterflies have a lot of meaning to the Chinese. Many times the symbolism has to do with the way the word is pronounced. Because the pronunciation of the Chinese word  is somewhat similar to the word for a man in his 70s, the symbol of a butterfly may refer to that older man. Butterflies can also symbolize joy, summer, and marital happiness, giving the image many meanings.

 

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And here we have butterflies again, in this folk art type set we saw earlier in the blog, with butterflies on the two 2 tiles.

And of course we have one again here:

 

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Tile #2 clearly is a butterfly, but the image on tile #3 has always mystified me.

I wonder if it might be a chrysalis? The butterfly about to emerge?

 

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And I will end the post with a lovely orphan tile, one from a set of creature Flower tiles.

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The book I wrote with Ann Israel is being published by Tuttle. To see more about it:

www.mahjonggtheartof thegame.com

To order it click here:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mah-jongg-ann-israel/1118759459?ean=9784805313237

or here from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Mah-Jongg-Collectors-Guide-Tiles/dp/4805313234/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1414844427&sr=8-7&keywords=mah+jongg

 

 

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Above we have the continuation from the earlier post this week.

Images continue to be somewhat cryptic. But these are the Four Professions, the four important jobs in China.

Starting from the left we have

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The scroll, one of the visual indications for a scholar. Following is the scroll seen earlier from the British Library, the oldest known scroll.

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The next tile deals with agriculture.

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You can see the signs of a farmer. The rake

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(photo from WWF)

behind what is probably a hat, which seems to have four strings, two to be tied under the chin and two behind the head, keeping the hat secure. Perhaps the design on the tile is a shorthand version for this type of hat.

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The next tile is also difficult to read, but it represents bundles of wood.

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Here is a recent photograph of a Chinese villager carrying a huge bundle of wood.

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And finally, the last calling is the fisherman.

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Once again the tile is cryptic, but if you look carefully you can make out the straight fishing pole and the wavy fishing line. But what is the other object?

I had the good fortune to see a collection of baskets from around the world. Much to my delight I happened upon this one:

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A Chinese fishing basket. Now you will be able to recognize the image on other tiles representing the fisherman.

 

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And these are capture tiles, required by some types of play: The centipede that will get caught by the rooster, and the fish that will be caught by the fisherman. Given the wavy line coming out of the fish's mouth, the fisherman may have already caught his fish. The capture tiles, which are bonus tiles, when paired correctly allow for extra points/money.

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These hand carved Flowers are from the Chinese Bakelite Mahjong set discussed March 7th. This set came with 16 Flowers.  The top row is a courtship series, and it is completely delightful. Don't you love the details of the clothing: the high heels she is wearing, the floral arrangement on tile 3 echoing the flowers on her dress, the buttons on the man's jacket and the pleat on the front of the pants' legs? On tile 4 the woman's raised leg, poised in mid-step, adds to the fun. On tile 3 she looks out a curtain, probably expecting her suitor's arrival.

The bottom tiles introduce volleyball to the list of leisure activities we saw yesterday: tennis, swimming, and playing with swords, dogs and balloons. The girl on tile 3 seems about to hit a volleyball serve.

Once again, Ray Heaton has provided an translation.

"Top row are 花好月圓, Hua Hao Yue Yuan and literally means 'lovely flowers, round moon' but is an idiom for 'everything is wonderful' or 'conjugal bliss', the last seems to fit nicely with the tiles.  If you search Google using these characters you also find it described as 'Blooming Flowers, Full Moon'.
Second row are 青春生活, Qing Chun Sheng Huo: Qing Chun together are "Youthful" and Sheng Huo are "Activity" or "Life", so I'd expect these to translate as something along the lines "An Active Youth". "
If you want some fun, you can click here for an excerpt of the song Blooming Flowers Full Moon, or you can even buy a copy for 99 cents.

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It is easy to understand why these newer (we think from from the 1960s until 1970s) hand-carved lucite tiles are so popular.  The crisp white background really sets off the bright color palette used by the painters, and the colors and the designs often can bring a smile to the viewer's face. Even the numbers seem to be animated. Many of us feel these hand-carved sets are undervalued at present.

The One Bam is a version of the standing pheasant so often seen on bone and bamboo tiles and on bakelite and catalin tiles. (What is interesting is that the bakelite and catalin tiles once probably looked very much like these tiles, although those were not hand-carved: both bakelite and catalin get yellower with age and exposure to light, and probably started off looking very much like this when they were manufactured.)

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The One Dots are unusual with their internal rings and squares. The other Dots have a simplified floral center pattern.

 

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The Craks feature the elaborate Wan, and all the Chinese numbers (the blue) appear animated. You will note that the colors used for Arabic numbers in each suit is different.

 

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The Winds are a crisp looking red and blue. The Dragons are figurative for the Red and Green, and more of the Chinese looking frame for the White Dragon.

 

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The color gold is not often seen on tiles, but it appears on each Flower tile in this set. The three people in the top row of tiles are a delightful addition to the scenes. The second row has flowers, although I can't identify all of them: plum blossom, orchid, unknown and bamboo.

The bottom eight are simplified symbols, and these will be discussed in another post. You will often see these on Flower tiles.

 

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The large Big Joker carving, along with the shape of the Bams and the Craks, points to the set having been made by Cardinal.

 

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The tiles really are wonderful when seen from the side, with their three layers. This set has the beautiful green backs, the clear centers, and white faces. We thank our friends at mahjongmahjong for sending us these photos. To see more of this set and other sets in their private collection, click here

http://www.mahjongmahjong.com/vintage_mahjong_pc/tri-colour_mj7.htm