A bronze tantric mirror. Ming dynasty or later
Displaying in relief the back view of the figure of a thousand-armed Guanyin seated on a double lotus, surrounded by a mantra in Chinese characters on one side and in Mandchu script on the other.
Diameter 9.1 cm
Literature
This well-known type of mirror can be found in several collections, for example in the Palace Museum Beijing, illustrated in: Guo Yuhao, Gugong cang jing (Mirrors in the Gugong Collection), Beijing 1996, no. 176 and He Lin, Gugong shou cang. Tong jing (The Gugong Collection: Copper Mirrors), Beijing 2007, no. 146; in the National Museum of History in Taipei, illustrated in: Ancient Chinese Bronzes, National Museum of History, Taipei, no. 92; in the Lüshun Museum in Beijing, illustrated in: Lüshun Bowuguan cang tong jing, Beijing 1997, no. 204 and 205; in the Musée de Hanoi, illustrated in: Publications de l'école francaise d'Extrême-Orient, Vol. XLVI, p. 57, no. 6.598, plate LXII and in other publications: M. Rupert and O. J. Todd, Chinese Bronze Mirrors, Peiping 1935, no. 405; Hebei Sheng Wenwu Yanjiu suo, Lidai tong ying wenshi (Decorations on Ancient Chinese Bronze Mirrors), Shijianzhuang 1996, no. 421; Tong jing shoucang shiyong jiexi (Collecting Bronze Mirrors), Beijing 2007, p. 147, and Di Xiu bin und Li Zhiqiang, ... Beijing 2013, p. 236, no. 71.