Lot 168. A rare 'open-leg' silvered bronze mirror, Tang Dynasty (618-907). 6 1/4 in., 15.9 cm. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 USD. Lot sold 31,200 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the octafoil mirror cast with a pair of phoenix, a galloping horse and a running wolf, each animal with one hind leg cast in openwork with space underneath the leg, all centered with a bear forming the knob and enclosed by a foliate scroll on the rim.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 12th June 1990, lot 21.

Note: Mirrors with openwork detail are relatively rare.  Compare three illustrated in Zhonggui Qingtong qi quan ji,  Beijing, 1998, vol. 16, nos. 125-128.  Each one of these is on a circle-punch ground with an inlaid silver sheet. A related mirror, with flower sprays between the animals, but with a plain circular knob and with a different decoration round the rim, excavated at Yichuan, Henan province and now in the collection of Yinchuan Cultural House, was included in the exhibition Yellow River Civilization, Tokyo, 1986, cat.no. 120.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 31 mars 2005