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Mirror, TLV type

Chinese

Artwork Details

Mirror, TLV type
206 BCE - 220 CE
Chinese
bronze with azurite and black patina
3/16 in. x 4 3/4 in. x 4 3/4 in. ( 0.4 cm x 12.1 cm x 12.1 cm )
Museum purchase for the James Marshall Plumer Memorial Collection
1961/2.67

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Description

Mirrors had a sacred significance for the early Chinese, as their shiny round surfaces were able to capture the light of the sun. The center of this mirror is decorated with a circle-within-a-square, a cosmological diagram. Around the perimeter stride two tigers and two griffin-like mythological creatures.
Maribeth Graybill, Senior Curator of Asian Art
Exhibited in "Flora and Fauna in Chinese Art," April 6, 2002 - December 1, 2002.

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