Circular Mirror with Decoration of Linked Arcs, Quatrefoil, and Stylized Foliage, and with Inscription

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2010.434
Title: Circular Mirror with Decoration of Linked Arcs, Quatrefoil, and Stylized Foliage, and with Inscription
Classification: Mirrors
Work Type: mirror
Date: 1st century BCE
Places: Creation Place: East Asia, China
Period: Han dynasty, Western Han period, 206 BCE-9 CE
Culture: Chinese
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/315421

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Cast bronze
Dimensions: Diam. 19 cm (7 1/2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Edmund Lin (1928-2006; Professor, Harvard Medical School), Boston; by bequest to the Harvard Art Museum

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Edmund Chi Chien Lin
Accession Year: 2010
Object Number: 2010.434
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

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.

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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