Monthly Archives: December 2014

 

X 59 EAGLE SCENE crab

We've been looking at some of the wonderful sea creatures that we see on Mahjong tiles. The next three appear in our book: Mah Jongg the Art of the Game. They are from a fabulous set of Flower tiles, made of ivory backed with bamboo. Thanks to www.Mahjongmahjong.com for providing this wonderful set for our use in the book.

You can see how finely carved this crab is, and how there is attention to the rocks under the water, and the grasses growing at the bottom of the sea. Once again we see that small "H" mark on the shell of the crab, similar to what we saw in the other post. To me, that crab has a lot of personality!

 

X 59 EAGLE SCENE shrimp

Here we have a shrimp, swimming near the ocean bottom, past little clumps of sea plants. To the Chinese the shrimps are symbols of flexibility. I don't know about you, but I certainly could use a bit more flexibility in my life!!

 

X 59 EAGLE SCENE fish

And this may be one of the most delightful looking goldfish I have ever seen!  The bubbles are such a terrific touch! And as you probably remember, goldfish are symbols of wealth and prosperity.

Here's another shrimp, this time bone and bamboo, not from the book

DSC_0120

 

By sheer coincidence, today is the day the Italians celebrate:

The feast of the 7 fishes, Christmas Eve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Seven_Fishes

 

You can now follow me on Twitter!

@MahJonggGregg

To learn more about Mah Jongg, you might want to take a look at this book that I wrote with Ann Israel, 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