Beschreibung:

TWO BRONZE CIRCULAR MIRRORS WITH DEITIES AND INSCRIPTIONS EASTERN HAN DYNASTY one mirror cast around the large central knop with musicians and beasts interspersed with recessed roundels to receive gemstones, encircled by a band of seal faces forming a poetic inscription that may be translated, "May you have sons and grandsons, who will give you joy forever; made in the fourth month of the first year of Jian'an (196 AD)" alternating with half-disc sun whorls between triangular borders, further enclosed by striding beasts and a band of scrolls to the rim; the other with a similarly large central knop pierced by a central hole, cast with six registers of animals and figures, Xi Wangmu and Dong Wanggong to either side and Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, the fifth register is Tianhuang Dadi and the two beast masters Huanlong controlling the animals of the four directions, the inscription which runs along the border may be transcribed, "The divine mirror of the Five Emperors was originally made by the sages, I have made this bright mirror; in seclusion I have refined it for three periods; its virtue matches with that of the 10,000 regions. Po Ya performed the music and the the gods appeared: the heavenly pipes are still extant. May this mirror grant you 1000 rewards and 100 riches and increase your long life. May you be blessed with sons and grandsons who will become marquises, princes, dukes and ministers." (2) Diameter of largest 7 1/8 in., 18.2 cm