2nd century BCE
This circular bronze mirror has a border of sixteen unembellished linked arcs. The decorated field is sunken. There is a very narrow inner border of radiating straight lines. Within the main decorated field there are four main bosses, each one on a circular field with a ten-point star pattern. Between the four bosses, there are scrolling lines in relief that connect smaller bosses, which lack the circular field surrounding the larger bosses. The central knob suggests a mountain with several peaks. The reflecting side of the mirror has been highly polished.
Diam. 11.2 cm (4 7/16 in.)
Edmund Lin (1928-2006; Professor, Harvard Medical School), Boston; by bequest to the Harvard Art Museum
Bronze
10th-9th century BCENear EasternCast bronze
7th-8th centuryChineseGlass on ivory
19th centuryFrenchCast bronze
8th centuryChineseCast bronze
8th centuryChineseCast bronze, the inset silver plaque on the reverse with repoussé designs; with a dated inscription on the reverse, beneath the inset plaque
7th centuryChineseCast bronze
5th-3rd century BCEChineseCast bronze; with two integrally cast auspicious inscriptions
1st-3rd century CEChineseCast bronze
1st-3rd century CEChineseOpaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer over brass layer on pasteboard
19th centuryPersianCopper alloy
3rd century BCEEtruscanCast bronze
5th-3rd century BCEChinese