LATE WESTERN HAN/XIN DYNASTY, 1ST CENTURY BC

The decoration on this elaborate TLV mirror, which is unusually large for its type, is derived from the layout of Qin and Han dynasty luibo game boards. The decoration is similar to that seen on smaller mirrors, one of which bears the same thirty-three character inscription, and is illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors from the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2005, pp. 164-5, no. 45. Another similar mirror of smaller size (21 cm.) with the same ornate quatrefoil surround for the knob is in the Sumitomo Collection and illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Chinese Bronze Mirrors, Sen-Oku Hakuko Kan, 8 January - 6 March 2011, p. 25, no. 37. See, also, the smaller example in the Lagrelius Collection, Stockholm, illustrated by B. Karlgren, "The Exhibition of Early Chinese Bronzes", BMFEA, Stockholm, 1934, No. 6, pl. LII (1). One with silvery patina (18.9 cm.) is illustrated by Toru Nakano et al., Bronze Mirrors from Ancient China: Donald H. Graham Jr. Collection, 1994, pp. 140-1.