1115-1234
This eight-lobed mirror has a flat, undecorated rim of medium width. The decorated field is slightly sunken, and within each lobe there are three stylized cloud-like elements. The main decorative field is encircled by a border of small beads and filled with designs of scrolling peonies. Nestled within the floral design is a cast character reading "Han" (Korea). A decorative element of combined lines and beads surrounds the loop knob at the center. A five-character inscription was incised into the otherwise plain border post-casting.
Diam. 12.3 cm (4 13/16 in.)
Edmund Lin (1928-2006; Professor, Harvard Medical School), Boston; by bequest to the Harvard Art Museum
Cast bronze
5th-3rd century BCEChineseCast bronze with gilding
1st-3rd century CEChineseMolded red earthenware, the surface blackened and the decoration cold-painted in red
20th centuryChineseCast bronze
7th-8th centuryChineseCast bronze; found in Karakhoto, Inner Mongolia
7th-8th centuryChineseOpaque and semi-opaque watercolor on prepared pasteboard under varnish
18th-19th centuryCast bronze with three integrally cast inscriptions (one auspicious and two documentary)
1st century CEChineseCopper alloy
4th century BCEGreekBronze
10th-9th century BCENear EasternCast bronze
8th centuryChineseCast bronze
5th-3rd century BCEChineseCast bronze
5th-3rd century BCEChinese