Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 9. (Budapest, 1966)

HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Ferenczy, László: Chinese Bronze Mirrors from the Han Period

Fig. 8. ( TLV mirror. China, Middle Han period pure and bright ; then it is suitable for a decoration ; may you have extended years and longevity ; may (the mirror) eliminate what is baleful ; may you be as everlasting as Heaven ; (the mirror) is like the light of the sun and the moon ; may you have a thousand autumns and ten thousand. . . (interrupted). The rim of the mirror is broad and thick and is covered with red-brown and green patina. The mirror is made of high-quality material of a silvery grey colour; its casting is excellent. Diameter: 18.7 cm. The inscription mirrors appeared in China in the Western Han period and were most in vogue in the 1st century B. C. Karlgren published similar mirror inscriptions.

26 On mirrors of this type it frequently occured that the central knob was surrounded with 12 flat discs. Inscriptions running through two bands were also found. On a piece dating from 6 A. D. and found in a Korean grave there is an inscription referring to Wang Mang. The linear ornaments between the arcs are other than those on our mirror, while the rim is decorated with a double saw-tooth pattern. By way of analogy to this mirror, Bulling mentions some mirrors of Changsha dating from the second half of the 1st century B.C.

27 The round-headed needle-like decorations between the leaves of the quatrefoil may find their analogy in the inscription mirror found in 1956 near Hsian, which has also a ring of arcs.

28 26 Karlgren : Early Chinese mirror inscriptions, pp. 23., 24, No. 72 — 74. 27 Bulling : The decoration ... pp. 27 — 28. PI. 22., 23. 28 Shansi-sheng chu-tu t'ung ching. PI. 30.