A parcel-gilt bronze 'xiniu' mirror stand, Late Ming / Early Qing dynasty

Collection of Louis-Victor de Rochechouart, marquis de Mortemart (1909-1938), and thence by descent.

The motif of a mythical one-horned xiniu gazing up at the moon can be found on a range of Song dynasty artefacts from ceramics to textiles, including on a ‘Ding’ dish sold in our Hong Kong rooms 4th April 2017, lot 3216. Scholar Jan Wirgin traces the origins of the xiniu (‘hsi-niu’) to the Asian rhinoceros which, already largely extinct by the Song, inspired tales of a mythical bovine creature whose single curved horn is mirrored by the crescent moon and helps it communicate with the sky; see Jan Virgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, Stockholm, 1970, pp. 196-8. 

A similar stand, but with the xiniu facing to the left, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (acc. no. M.737-1910) and illustrated on the cover of Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, pl. 87. Compare also a similar, slightly larger stand sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 6th October 2015, lot 185 and again, with a different mirror, on 11th June 2021, lot 3101; and another related xiniu without a mirror stand sold at Bonhams London, 9th November 2017, lot 193.