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Lot Essay
Mirrors of this type, with their rich combination of gold and silver decoration on a lacquer ground set into the back of the bronze mirror, reflect the splendor and sumptuous taste of the Tang court. Mirrors similar to the present example found their way to Japan at an early date, such as the similarly decorated eight-lobed mirror in the Shoso-in, illustrated by Ryochi Hayashi, The Silk Road and the Shoso-in, New York/Tokyo, 1975, p. 129, fig. 142.
The octagonal lacquer box that accompanies this mirror is painted in gold and silver with a design of a pair of ducks standing amidst peonies and copied directly from a silver and gold-decorated leather-covered box in the southern repository of the Shoso-in, illustrated by J. Rawson, "The Ornament on Chinese Silver of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907)," British Museum Occasional Paper No. 40, 1982, p. 58, no. 63.
The octagonal lacquer box that accompanies this mirror is painted in gold and silver with a design of a pair of ducks standing amidst peonies and copied directly from a silver and gold-decorated leather-covered box in the southern repository of the Shoso-in, illustrated by J. Rawson, "The Ornament on Chinese Silver of the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907)," British Museum Occasional Paper No. 40, 1982, p. 58, no. 63.