Lot 8903. An inscribed bronze 'feline mask' mirror, Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD); 18.4cm. Lot Sold 90,000 HKD (Estimate 20,000-30,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2004

cast with a quatrefoil design with double-scrolled ends around the central knob, each pointed petal of the quatrefoil enclosing a feline head and interspersed by four larger animal heads, all bounded by a ring of long inscription, a sunken scalloped band and a lozenge- patterned border, each decorative band detailed with elaborate scrollwork, wood stand.

Inscription: In the second month of the second month, the day Bing (Bingwu) is a bright mirror. It has its own square and quiet place. It is as bright as the sky (Qing Dynasty). On the moon, there is the king of the east and the father of the west. The king (mother) is born like a mountain and a stone. It is suitable for the east and west. It is eighty million miles away. It is rich and prosperous. The descendants of Wang Changyi ascended to the throne of the Three Shang Dynasties, and Leweiyang's division was named Chang Jiyang.

Provenance: Eskenazi Ltd, London, 15th August 1988.
Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9th October 2022, lot 169.

Literature: Jessica Rawson and Emma C. Bunker, Ancient Chinese and Ordos Bronzes , Hong Kong, 1990, cat. no. 167.

Note: The long inscription may be translated as follow:
'On the bingwu day of the second month,
I made this mirror using my own recipe.
In seclusion, I refined it over three periods.
It is as bright as the moon in the darkening sky,
with the blessings from King Father of the East and Queen Mother of the West.
May your life be as resilient as mountains and precious stones.
May your lands stretch from east to west, spanning eighty million miles.
May you be blessed with wealth and prosperity.
May you become a noble and rise in rank.
May you be blessed with fertility and your descendants also rise in rank.
May you be blessed with boundless happiness.
May you be blessed with longevity and good fortune.'

The bingwu day indicated on the present mirror is suggested to be an invented day and was chosen purely because it was auspicious. (Jessica Rawson and Emma C. Bunker, 1990; Suzanne Cahill, 1986, p. 63). Casters of this era might have purposefully chosen a propitious date for a permanent record. The characters bing and wu , as mentioned in the day, were also associated auspiciously with the casting of mirrors (Bernhard Karlgren, Word Families in Chinese , Stockholm, 1934, p. 48). Bingwu inscriptions were also found on Han dynasty bronze garment hooks.

See a closely related mirror, with a similar 'feline mask' decoration and provenance traceable as far back as the late Qing dynasty, in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, accession no. F1939.38. It is also inscribed with a fictitious date, attributed to the bingwu day of the first month of the thirteenth year, corresponding to AD 174.

Sotheby's. Arcade Sale, Hong Kong, 22 November 2024