Bronze mirror with five-clawed dragon between waves

Description:

China, Ming dynasty, dated by inscription to the 22nd year of the Hongwu period (1389)
D. 11,6 cm
Cast with a sinuous five-clawed dragon pursuing a flaming pearl over cresting waves, the rectangular cartouche to the left with an inscription reading Hongwu er shi er nian zheng yue ri zao, 'made in the first month of the twenty-second year of Hongwu period' (corresponding to 1389), the knob in the form of a three-peak mountain, all enclosed within a raised border.
From an old East German private collection, collected before 1980
Compare a similar moulded mirror with this design from the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing, illustrated by Geng Baochang in Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Knowledge üon Ming and Qing Porcelain], Beijing, 1993, p. 11, no. 10. See also a äsimilar example from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated on the museum's website (accession no. 12.816). Two further examples of this type are in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Gugong tongqi tulu [Illustrated catalogue of bronzes in the collection of the Palace Museum], Taipei, 1958. A further example was sold at Christie's, Paris, 21.6.2016, lot 147. - Minimal signs of age