Lot 1133. Two bronze circular mirrors, Warring States period, 4th-3rd century BC. Mirrors 7 1/16 and 3 7/8 in. (18 and 9.9 cm.) diam.; gold fragments 3¾ and 1¾ in. (9.5 and 4.5 cm.) across. Estimate USD 7,000 - USD 9,000. Price Realised USD 15,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2013

The larger has a central square with small leaves or feathers at the corners from which extend rope-twist garlands suspending leaf and feather pendants that separate the four large shan characters reserved on a feather-hook ground; the smaller also has a small central square with birds standing at the corners between zigzag lozenge motifs, all of which are reserved on a finely patterned ground. Together with two thin gold fragments, Eastern Zhou dynasty, 6th-3rd century BC, which are decorated in repoussé with angular scroll pattern formed by the striated bodies of interlocked dragons. 

Provenance: Raymond A. Bidwell (1876-1954) Collection.
The Springfield Museums, Springfield, Massachusetts, accessioned in 1962. 

Note: The gold sheet fragments would have been part of a larger gold sheet applique, such as the angular scroll-form examples terminating in a bird head at one end and a dragon head at the other, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, The Arts of the Chou Dynasty, Stanford University Museum, 1958, nos. 58 and 59. 

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 21 - 22 March 2013, New York, Rockefeller Plaza