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Lot Essay
According to Ju-hsi Chou, Circles of Reflection: The Carter Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors, The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990, where a similar mirror of comparable size is illustrated, p. 67, no. 57, mirrors of this type became known as baoxianghua (flowers of precious appearance). Other similar mirrors are illustrated in Ancient Bronze Mirrors from the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 2005, pp. 218-9, no. 71 (16.5 cm.), (Fig.1) where it is mentioned that similar mirrors were excavated around Kaifeng, Henan province, in the early 1930s; in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji - 16 - Bronze Mirrors, Beijing, 1998, p. 109, no. 107, excavated in 1981 in Xian, Shaanxi province; and in the exhibition catalogue, Tang Mirrors, Sen-Oku Hakuko Kan, Kyoto, 8 January - 6 March 2011, p. 36, no. 44. See, also, the smaller (12.9 cm.) mirror of this type illustrated by J. Rawson and E. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, Oriental Ceramic Society, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 258-9, no. 178, where the authors note that the flower medallions are related to Sui and Tang textile designs as well as to "canopy patterns developed for ornamenting Buddhist caves, such as those at Dunhuang in Gansu province." A similar mirror of slightly larger size (18.9 cm.) was sold in these rooms, 26 March 2010, lot 1276.