Bronze mirrors flourished in the Warring States and Han Dynasties, but later generations also copied them. There were many imitation bronze mirrors in the Tang, Song, Warring States and Han Dynasties. Let's see how to identify bronze mirrors.
The early production process of bronze mirrors was "model casting method", but the quality of bronze mirrors after the Song Dynasty was quite different from that of the previous dynasty. Most of the bronze mirrors of later generations were made of "turning sand" and "losing wax"
Before the Tang Dynasty, almost all bronze mirrors were uncut. After casting, they simply clean and polish the back. Most of the bronze mirrors after the Song Dynasty were blurred after casting, which generally required knife carving to complete. Therefore, it is a simple method to distinguish the authenticity of bronze mirrors directly from the manufacturing process. In fact, there is only one criterion to judge whether a bronze mirror is true or false, that is, it is made by model casting or lost wax method.
Mid-late Spring and Autumn Period to early Warring States Period. The mirror types that appeared and became popular in this period are: plain mirror (all-plain mirror, single-ring mirror and double-ring convex-chord mirror), pure ground mirror (few square mirrors with ground patterns but no inscriptions), mosaic mirror, four-mountain mirror and multi-button mirror. Generally speaking, they are thin and round with small bridge-shaped buttons on them.
From the late Warring States to the Qin Dynasty, there were no four-leaf flat mirrors, flat mirrors and three-layer cloud-thunder flat mirrors.
The popular bronze mirrors in the Han Dynasty are Pan,,, Xing, Lian Jing, Bird and Beast Wen Jing, Rearranged Beast Mirror, Lian Jing Wen Jing, Re-circle Inscription Mirror, Four-row Beast Mirror, Multi-row Beast Mirror, Deformed Four-leaf Mirror, Beast Mirror, Portrait Mirror and Dragon and Tiger Wen Jing.