Chinese Mirror with Carved Calligraphy

Birds, vines and characters, all hiding in a honeycomb.

This mirror with carved calligraphy comes from China and dates to the 19th century, in elmwood. Pierced panels of this kind decorated doors, screens and furniture in Chinese homes, and carved characters often carried poetry or good wishes along with the pattern. A dark frame holds five openwork panels in red and gold, with leafy vines and birds over a hexagonal lattice, and characters among the foliage at the sides. A beveled mirror fills the center. Fifty-one and a half inches wide and forty-three high.

You can read it, or you can just check your tie.