Mirror with dragons

Mirror. Dull brown surface with areas of green aerugo and earthy incrustation. Decoration in gold and silver inlay.

Historical period(s)
Eastern Zhou dynasty, 5th-4th century BCE
Medium
Bronze with gold and silver inlay
Dimensions
Diam x D: 19.7 x 1.5 cm (7 3/4 x 9/16 in)
Geography
China
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1936.3
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Metalwork, Mirror
Type

Mirror

Keywords
China, Eastern Zhou dynasty (770 - 221 BCE)
Provenance

From at least 1933 to 1936
C. T. Loo & Company, Paris from at least January 1933 [1]

From 1936
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from C. T. Loo & Company, Paris and New York on March 3, 1936 [2]

Notes:

[1] Umehara Sueji, "Hosokawa koshaku-ke zo kin-gin-saku shuryo monkyo" (An Inlaid Bronze Mirror in Marquis Hosokawa's Collection), Bijutsu kenkyu no. 13 (January 1933), p. 5, pl. 3, listed as owned by C. T. Loo, Paris.

[2] See C. T. Loo's invoice dated March 3, 1936, copy in object file. The mirror was included on a "List of objects owned by C. T. Loo, New York and [sent to] the Gallery for examination, December 1934." The invoice was issued by C. T. Loo's Paris gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

C.T. Loo & Company 1914-1948

Description

Mirror. Dull brown surface with areas of green aerugo and earthy incrustation. Decoration in gold and silver inlay.

Published References
  • Osvald Siren. Kinas Konst Under Tre Artusenden. 2 vols., Stockholm, 1942-1943. vol. 2: pl. 46b.
  • Sueji Umehara. Some Ancient Chinese Mirrors with Rich Ornaments. vol. 14 Osaka, June 1954. pl. 6a.
  • Sueji Umehara. Kan izen no kokyo no kenkyu [L'Etude sur le Miroir Anterieur a la Dynastie des Han]. Kyoto. vol. 6: pp. 9-10, 38-40, pl. 37, fig. 1.
  • Sueji Umehara. Hosokawa koshaku-ke zo kin-gin-saku shuryu monkyo [An Inlaid Bronze Mirror in Marquis Hosokawa's Collection]. vol. 13 Tokyo, January 1933. figs. 1-7.
  • Sueji Umehara. Rakuyo kinson kobo shuei [Objects from the Ancient Tombs at Chin Ts'un, Lo-yang]. Kyoto. pl. 49.
  • Smithsonian Institution. Report of the Secretary, 1935. Washington, 1935-1936. pl. 1.
  • Smithsonian Institution. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1935. Washington, 1935-1936. appendix 3, pl. 1.
  • Robert Dale Jacobsen. Inlaid Bronzes of Pre-Imperial China: A Classical Tradition and Its Later Revivals. 2 vols. Ann Arbor. pl. 172.
  • Dr. John Alexander Pope, Thomas Lawton, Harold P. Stern. The Freer Gallery of Art. 2 vols., Washington and Tokyo, 1971-1972. cat. 25, vol. 1: p. 155.
  • Masterpieces of Chinese and Japanese Art: Freer Gallery of Art handbook. Washington, 1976. p. 19.
  • Compiled by the staff of the Freer Gallery of Art. A Descriptive and Illustrative Catalogue of Chinese Bronzes: Acquired During the Administration of John Ellerton Lodge. Oriental Studies Series, no. 3 Washington, 1946. p. 68, pl. 37.
  • Thomas Lawton. Chinese Art of the Warring States Period: Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C. Washington, 1982-1983. cat. 38, p. 83.
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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