TLV Mirror with Multiple Nipples (9–23 CE): Art, History and Details

TLV Mirror with Multiple Nipples (9–23 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The inscription in this mirror reads: A fine mirror it is, my making of it! I can show the ageless immortals up above. They wander over the earth and belittle the Four Oceans. They live as long as metal and stone, And are true protectors of our kingdom. These poetic lines suggest the reflective and magical qualities of the bronze mirror in the Chinese imagination. Besides reflecting the immortals, it illuminated the human soul so that it would be in tune with forces of yin and yang in Chinese cosmology.

Object facts

• Title: TLV Mirror with Multiple Nipples
• Date: 9–23 CE
• Culture: China, Xin dynasty (9–23 CE)
• Type: Metalwork
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Diameter: 16.9 cm (6 5/8 in.); Overall: 1.1 cm (7/16 in.); Rim: 0.5 cm (3/16 in.)
• Collection: China - Han Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1995.298

A detail from the museum

This mirror includes a poetic inscription that credits the immortals as protectors of the kingdom.

Collection credit

Gift of Drs. Thomas and Martha Carter in Honor of Sherman E. Lee

Further reading listed by the museum

• Chou, Ju-hsi. Circles of reflection: the Carter collection of Chinese bronze mirrors. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.