Tag Archives: hand carved mahjong

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$_57-2This pristine set was recently auctioned on ebay. The One Bam is the familiar peacock, but all the bright red accents make it unusual. The other Bams are in the barbed style.

The Craks have the elaborate Wan, and the unusual green Arabic numbers.

$_57-1The green and red color palette seen here is quite lovely.

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The Craks have the elaborate Wan, and the unusual green Arabic numbers.

 

$_57-3But the Flowers are what makes the set. Here a train and ship are captured while moving, as is evident of the smoke coming out of the smokestacks. Passengers are seen on both carriers. It is not really known what specifically these tiles were made to celebrate; some feel it is the opening of a commerce line linked by rail and sea.

 

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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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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

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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

 

 

 

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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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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