A BRONZE 'XINIU' MIRROR STAND MING DYNASTY

the mirror stand cast in the form of a recumbent 'xiniu' with a long curved horn flanked by a pair of furled ears, its head turned backwards to gaze at the crescent moon-shaped mirror holder above stylised cloud scrolls, the patina of a dark brown colour

Philip K. Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes - The Saint Louis Art Museum and Robert Kresko Collections, St. Louis, 2008, cat. no. 12.

Mirror stands of this form were very popular and made over a long period of time. Rose Kerr in Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, cat. no. 87, illustrates an example from the Salting Bequest in the Victoria & Albert Museum, which she dates convincingly to the Song or Yuan dynasty. A slightly large mirror stand in the Musée Cernuschi is illustrated by Michel Maucuer, Bronzes de la Chine impériale, des Song aux Qin, Paris, 2013, cat. no. 57. For a closely related example sold at auction, see the example from the collection of Ulrich Hausmann, sold in these rooms, 8th October 2014, lot 3370.