A Large Bronze 'Lion and Grapevine' Mirror

TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

Details

A Large Bronze 'Lion and Grapevine' Mirror
Tang dynasty (618-907)
The central knop cast as a crouching lion surrounded by smaller lions frolicking amidst scrolling grapevine, within a raised beaded border, the outer field with further lions and birds also amidst grapevine below a band of detached florets on the canted rim, with silvery grey patina
9 1/2in. (24.2cm.) diam.
Falk Collection no. 558.

Literature

M. Sullivan, The Arts of China, Berkley, California, 1984, no. 167, p. 136.

Exhibited

The Arts of the T'ang Dynasty, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1957, no. 129.
Neolithic to Ming, Chinese Objects - The Myron S. Falk Collection, Northampton Massachusetts, Smith College Museum of Art, 1957, no. 21.
Treasures of Chinese Art, Lousville, Kentucky, J. B. Speed Museum of Art, 1964-1965, no. 15.

Lot Essay

For examples of 'lion and grapevine' mirrors, compare those illustrated by S. Cammann in "The Lion and Grapevine Patterns on Chinese Bronze Mirrors," Artibus Asiae, 1953, vol. XVI, fig. 8, and by N. Thompson in "The Evolution of the T'ang Lion and Grapevine Mirror," Artibus Asiae, 1957, vol. XXIX, fig. 13. See, also, an example illustrated in Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, 1955, vol. IX, p. 60, fig. 9, and in W.P. Yetts, The George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. II, London, 1930, pl. XXII, no. B42.

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