An extremely rare inscribed gold-inlaid iron mirror, Eastern Han dynasty | 東漢 鐵錯金獸紋鏡

Collection of Patricia Bauman and John Landrum Bryant, acquired in the 1990s.

來源： 

Patricia Bauman 及 John Landrum Bryant 伉儷收藏，得於1990年代  

Michael C. Teller, A Selection of Chinese Masterpieces from the Bauman-Bryant Collection, New York, 2006.

出版：

Michael C. Teller，《A Selection of Chinese Masterpieces from the Bauman-Bryant Collection》，紐約，2006年

It is rare to find a Han dynasty iron mirror, and even rarer to find one with such well-preserved gold inlay. The intricate gold inlay depicts mythical beasts and stylized scrolls. This decoration is divided into four sections, each with a single indistinct character. Three are decipherable as sun (‘descendant’), chang (‘long’) and xuan (‘proclaim’). 

A gold-inlaid mirror decorated with figures on thrones from the Carl Kempe Collection, included in the exhibition Chinese Gold, Silver and Porcelain: the Kempe Collection, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1971, cat. no. 13, was sold in our London rooms, 14th May 2008, lot 34. A more closely related mirror to the present example, similarly oxidized and decorated with five animals design is in the National Museum of China, illustrated on the Museum's website.