A LARGE BRONZE 'SHAN' MIRROR

LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC

Details

A LARGE BRONZE 'SHAN' MIRROR
LATE WARRING STATES PERIOD, 4TH-3RD CENTURY BC
The mirror is crisply cast with a ribbed loop surrounded by a circular border and five feathers enclosed within the five-pointed star created by the connected inner edges of the five shan, ‘mountain’, characters, all reserved on a ground of feather pattern, with thin upward-curved rim. The bronze has a silvery grey patina with some malachite and azurite encrustations.
9 ½ in. (24.2 cm.) diam., box

Provenance

Galaxie Art & Gift Company, Hong Kong, 28 November 1993

Brought to you by

Priscilla Kong

pkong@christies.com +852 2978 9958

Lot Essay

Compare a very similar mirror illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2005, pp. 78-9, no. 4; one illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors in the National Museum of History, Taipei, 1996, p. 85; and another in the collection of T.Y. King, illustrated by B. Karlgren, “Huai and Han”, BMFEA 13, 1941, pl. 16 (C 44).

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