Page 212 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

202. Bronze mirror
Eastern Zhou dynasty, Warring States period, circa 5 - 3 centuries bc.
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東周戰國時期青銅鏡
Diameter: 8.6 cm

A very small mirror of circular shape, cast in two parts. Provenance:
The bottom, larger layer of the mirror has a dished rim ▪ Ben Janssens - Oriental Art, London, U.K.
into which the mirror’s smaller central section, decorated
with four openwork interlinked dragons in high relief Similar examples:
around a central boss, fits perfectly. ▪ The closest published parallel is a much smaller mirror
in the Collection of the Shanghai Museum, which is
The mirror has a black patina. published by Chen Peifen, Ma Jinhong and others,
Ancient Bronze Mirrors from the Shanghai Museum,
Shanghai 2010, no.11, p. 92 - 93. The Shanghai
Museum mirror is decorated with a very similar pattern
of four interlinked dragons, but also has a border of
interwoven spirals on its flat rim.
▪ Another similar example is in the Carter Collection at
the Cleveland Museum of Arts and is published by Chou
Jushi, Circles of Reflection: The Carter Collection of
Chinese Bronze Mirrors, Cleveland 2002, p. 26, no. 4.
The Carter mirror has a similar design, but with the
dragons biting the mirror’s inner rim.

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