A Bronze Mirror, Cast in Tang dynasty style with a canted edge and concave band of scrolling lotus flowers over an outer band of grapes with six lions and birds facing in opposite directions, accompanied by dragonflies and flowers under a double band containing six lions and a grapevine with hovering insects and flowers surrounding a central lion-form finial, back still retains silver sheen. D: 4 1/4" PROVENANCE: Accompanied with note, gift from Yen Hsi-Shan, Premier of China. The mirror was given in late 1949 as a thank you to the CIA operative pilot who airlifted him and the provincial treasury to Taiwan and safety, just prior to the fall of Tiai-yuan. Yen ruled the province until the Communist Party of China|Communists ousted him in 1949. Although Yen was known as the "Model Governor" for his enlightened policies, he was nonetheless a military dictator. In 1926, Yen pledged his loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek's new government, but in 1929 he joined Feng Y?-hsiang and Wang Ching-wei in their attempt to overthrow the Generallisimo. After a brief retirement in the early 1930s, Yen returned to power in Shanxi and undertook social and military reforms to counteract the spread of Communism in the province. He also supported Chang Hs?eh-liang's seizure of Chiang Kai-shek in 1936 (see Xian Incident). During WWII, Yen effectively resisted Japanese attempts to seize Shanxi, and his troops (including thousands of Japanese) held out against the Communists during the Chinese Civil War until the fortress city of T'ai-yüan fell in April 1949. Yen fled (with the provincial treasury) to Taiwan along with the rest of the ROC government.

patches of corrosion