The Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors


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Series: Monumenta Archaeologica 25
ISBN: 0-9745168-7-2

Price: 2 Volumes, Boxed: $250

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Edited by Lothar von Falkenhausen

The Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors is a 2009 co-publication of the Cotsen Occasional Press and the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. Volume I, The Lloyd Cotsen Study Collection of Chinese Bronze Mirrors: Catalogue, includes an engaging foreword by Lloyd Cotsen, an overview of major Chinese dynasties and periods, and a brief history of Chinese bronze mirrors by Suzanne E. Cahill.

This volume presents a detailed catalogue of the extensive Cotsen Collection through high-quality images and illustrations of the mirrors in their approximate chronological sequence. Volume II, a set of eleven scholarly essays, goes further to investigate these mirrors as a study collection.

Guided by the conviction that this particular constellation of mirrors may lead to substantive insights that cannot easily be obtained otherwise, the leading scholars who contributed to this volume used the materials in Volume I as a point of departure for explorations of topics of their own choice. The publication of this two-volume set preceded an exhibition of the mirrors at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens and the return of the collection to China in recognition of that country’s rightful cultural patrimony.

This two-volume, boxed set contains a catalogue of exquisite photographs and scholarly essays on the Chinese bronze mirrors collected by Lloyd Cotsen. It was related to an exhibition of the mirrors at the Huntington Library and Art Museum in California, and serves as a beautiful record of the collection which is being repatriated to China in recognition of its rightful cultural patrimony. 

Table of Contents

Introduction by Lothar von Falkenhausen

Chapter 1. Long Distance Interactions as Reflected in the Earliest Chinese Bronze Mirrors by Li Jaang

Chapter 2. Mirrors of the Warring States Period (450-221 BCE) by Colin Mackenzie

Chapter 3. A Performance Design on a Chinese Bronze Mirror in the Cotsen Collection by Hanmo Zhang

Chapter 4. Positioning the Heavenly Horses on Han Mirrors by Lillian Lan-ying Tseng

Chapter 5. Han Mirror Inscriptions as Modular Texts by K.E. Brashier

Chapter 6. Mirrors in Early Korea by Charlotte Horlyck

Chapter 7. A Comparison of Designs on Bronze Mirrors and Silk Textiles from the Warring States through the Tang Periods (450 BCE-907 CE) by Suzanne E. Cahill

Chapter 8. Mirrors Inlaid with Mother-of-Pearl in the Cotsen Collection by Charlotte Horlyck

Chapter 9. The Hanxiang Mirror and Religious Politics in Tang and Song China by Li Min

Chapter 10. A Liao-Dynasty Buddhist Votive Mirror in the Cotsen Collection by Guolong Lai

Chapter 11. The Technical Analysis of Chinese Mirrors by David A. Scott