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A rare and very large hardwood mirror on stand The frame Chinese 18th century, the European glass later
£30,000 - £40,000
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A rare and very large hardwood mirror on stand
The rectangular mirror mounted in a hardwood frame with bevelled edges and carved around the inner edge with a beaded border enclosed by nine tasselled Daoist objects amid squared scrollwork, the U-shaped frame surmounted on each side by a panel carved with a writhing chilong, and beneath the mirror a panel carved with three adult Buddhist lions each playing with two cubs amid ribbons and the central lion with a brocade ball, all above further panels carved with three bats in flight each holding in its mouths a leafy spray, the left with pomegranate, the central bat with finger citron and the right with peach.
200cm x 110cm x 59cm (78¾in x 43¼in x 23¼in) (2).
Footnotes
硬木戲獅紋帶鏡子大插屏
(硬木 十八世紀,歐洲玻璃 晚期)
The motifs carved on this mirror reflect the key influences on Chinese art and design, notably Daoism in the form of the tasselled precious objects, Buddhism in the form of the lions, cubs and brocade ball, and Imperial power in the form of the dragon. The final panel also contains a wish for long life, blessings and many sons, in the form of the finger citron, peach and pomegranate, known as the Three Abundances or 三多 sanduo.
Compare a large Imperial hardwood mirror of similar structure carved with squared scrolls from the west passageway of the Yang xin dian or Hall of Mental Cultivation, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Furniture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties (II), Hong Kong, 2002, no.250. A pair of related mirrors can be seen in the interior view of the Qianqinggong, illustrated in Classics of Forbidden City: Life in the Forbidden City of Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2007, no.71.














