Lot 186. A rare bronze mirror stand, Yuan-Ming Dynasty (1279-1644). Length 9 7/8 in., 25.2 cm. Estimate 6,000 — 8,000 USD. Lot sold 5,938 USD. Photo Sotheby's

the mythical beast well-cast as a recumbent xiniu with its raised head turned to one side looking upward and modeled with a bifurcated horn, curling tufts of hair on either side of the face and at the chin, the mouth issuing trailing cloud wisps that rise to form the channeled crescent-shaped mirror support; together with three Song-Yuan Dynasty mirrors (4). 

Note: From the 12th through the 14th century, the most popular lunar-loving bovine was the xiniu, an imaginary creature, often described as a mythical rhinoceros, who communicated with the sky. According to some legends, the animal's peculiar horn is formed while he is gazing at the moon. In other more complicated accounts, the horn elongates to a point after 1,000 years, is then ordained with white stars, and exhales a vapor that penetrates the sky.

A similar recumbent mythical beast-form mirror stand of smaller size from the Kresko Collection is illustrated in Philip K. Hu, Later Chinese Bronzes, St. Louis Art Museum, 2008, pp. 70-73, no. 12, where different descriptions of the beast in early Chinese literature and more recent research are discussed at length and the author elects to name the beast a djeiran. Another example of similar form but with parcel-gilt surface, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is illustrated in Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, pp. 100-101, no. 87.  During the late Ming, renewed focus on particular archaistic themes produced distinctive forms of this type.

Bronze mirror-stand in the shape of a recumbent mythical one-horned animal (xiniu), Chinese, Song or Yuan dynasty (960-1368). Salting Bequest, M.737-1910. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 11 september 2012