Period:Ming dynasty Production date:16thC-17thC
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:animal deity
Dimensions:Diameter: 16.30 centimetres Weight: 532 grammes
Description:
Mirror with deities, dragon and tiger. Round bronze mirror with truncated hemispherical knob surrounded by a double-line square with a floral motif in each corner. Aligned with each outer corner of the square is a nipple dividing the surface into four section. Two contain a dragon and a tiger respectively. The other two contain a deity flanked by an attendant on each side. The entire decoration is framed by a plain, a hachured and a sawtooth band ending in a thick rim with triangular profile.
IMG
![图片[1]-mirror BM-1986-0519.1-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Bronzes/mid_00994278_001.jpg)
![图片[2]-mirror BM-1986-0519.1-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Bronzes/mid_00994279_001.jpg)
![图片[3]-mirror BM-1986-0519.1-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Ming dynasty/Bronzes/mid_00309743_001.jpg)
Comments:Jones 1990Ming dynasty mirrorMirrors, usually round discs of bronze with a flat reflective side and a highly decorated side, are known in China from about 1300 BC, and were used almost without interruption from about the fourth century BC down to the eighteenth or nineteenth century AD. During the Ming (AD 1368-1644) genuine Han (206 BC-AD 220) mirrors or copies of them were popular. It is not clear whether the owners of mirrors like this one recognised that they were copies of mirrors of the third century AD or whether they believed them to be ancient. Such mirrors were not simply prized as antiques but were also buried in tombs. For example, two mirrors, one a Han dynasty type, were found in the ‘waste pit’ of the tomb of Zhu Youmu (d. AD 1634), buried at Nancheng in Jiangsu province (Wenwu 1983. 2, pp. 56-64, figs 7&8).
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:animal deity
Dimensions:Diameter: 16.30 centimetres Weight: 532 grammes
Description:
Mirror with deities, dragon and tiger. Round bronze mirror with truncated hemispherical knob surrounded by a double-line square with a floral motif in each corner. Aligned with each outer corner of the square is a nipple dividing the surface into four section. Two contain a dragon and a tiger respectively. The other two contain a deity flanked by an attendant on each side. The entire decoration is framed by a plain, a hachured and a sawtooth band ending in a thick rim with triangular profile.
IMG
Comments:Jones 1990Ming dynasty mirrorMirrors, usually round discs of bronze with a flat reflective side and a highly decorated side, are known in China from about 1300 BC, and were used almost without interruption from about the fourth century BC down to the eighteenth or nineteenth century AD. During the Ming (AD 1368-1644) genuine Han (206 BC-AD 220) mirrors or copies of them were popular. It is not clear whether the owners of mirrors like this one recognised that they were copies of mirrors of the third century AD or whether they believed them to be ancient. Such mirrors were not simply prized as antiques but were also buried in tombs. For example, two mirrors, one a Han dynasty type, were found in the ‘waste pit’ of the tomb of Zhu Youmu (d. AD 1634), buried at Nancheng in Jiangsu province (Wenwu 1983. 2, pp. 56-64, figs 7&8).
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