Circular Mirror with Decoration of Linked Arcs, Quatrefoil, and Stylized Foliage, and with Inscription
1st century BCE
Description
This circular mirror has a broad, raised, undecorated outer border. This gives way to a beveled edge that leads into a large, slightly sunken decorated field. There are short, radiating lines in thread relief that separate the designs within the decorative field. A long inscription raised in relief and arranged in a circle along the periphery of the field encircles inked arches in relief that surround a quatrefoil within a plain, undecorated ring. The knob is hemispherical. The reflecting side of the mirror has been polished clean of its patina.
Dimensions
Diam. 19 cm (7 1/2 in.)
Provenance
Edmund Lin (1928-2006; Professor, Harvard Medical School), Boston; by bequest to the Harvard Art Museum
Related Artworks
View MoreCast bronze, the inset gold plaque on the reverse with repoussé designs
8th centuryChineseOpaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, metallic particles, and lacquer over metallic layer on pasteboard
18th-19th centuryCast bronze
8th centuryChineseOpaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, brass particles, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard
19th centuryCast bronze
2nd century BCEChineseLeaded bronze
4th-3rd century BCEGreekCast bronze
7th-8th centuryChineseCast bronze
5th-3rd century BCEChineseCopper alloy
4th century BCEGreekCopper alloy
1st century BCE-2nd century CERomanCast bronze
8th centuryChineseCast bronze with integrally cast auspicious inscription
2nd-3rd century CEChinese