TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

Tang bronze mirrors with dragon and cloud decoration are more usually lobed, such as the example in the Shaanxi History Museum published by Wang Wenqing, et al. (eds.), Ten Major Museums of Shaanxi, Hong Kong, 1994, p. 22. For a similarly decorated circular mirror dated to the 8th century, in the Cleveland Museum of Art, see Ju-hsi Chou, Circles of Reflection; The Carter Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000, p. 78, no. 72. Yang Xin, et al., in the Art of the Dragon, Palace Museum, Beijing and Hong Kong, p. 61, no. 43, note that during the Tang dynasty the emperor would give mirrors as gifts to his ministers on his birthday, and that the "birthday mirrors were probably coiled-dragon mirrors."