A large Chinese silvered bronze 'TLV' mirror, Western Han dynasty,...

A large Chinese silvered bronze 'TLV' mirror, Western Han dynasty, finely cast with the 'Four Directions', a tiger, phoenix, dragon, and turtle, encircling a square with a border of zodiacal characters around the central raised knob, 23.5cm diameter Provenance: Ben Janssens Oriental Art, London, 22 March 2006. Note: A TLV mirror is a type of circular bronze mirror with engraved symbols resembling the letters T, L, and V. According to Schuyler Camman, the design of TLV mirrors is cosmologically significant. The V shapes serves to give the inner square the appearance of being placed in the middle of a cross. This forms an illustration of the Chinese idea of the five directions - North, South, West, East and Center. The central square represents China as the ‘Middle Kingdom.’ The area in between the central square and the circle represents the ‘Four Seas.’ During the Han Dynasty the ‘Four Seas’ represented territories outside China. The central square within the round mirror alludes to the ancient Chinese idea that heaven is round, and earth is square. The Ts represent the concept of the ‘Four Gates of the Middle Kingdom,’ an idea present in Chinese literature. The Ls symbolize the marshes and swamps beyond the ‘Four Seas,’ at the ends of the earth. The eight nipples outside of the central square are a representation of the Eight Pillars, mountains that held up the canopy of heaven.