54 CHINESE IDEAS OF ANTIQUES 



of a mercurial colour (7lt $&). These mercurial colours may 

 be divided into two classes (1) silver coloured mercurial 

 wares, (2) lead coloured mercurial wares. Such consist for 

 the most part of copper mirrors. The reason is that the 

 ancients embalmed the bodies of the dead by charging the 

 cavities of the body with mercury, after which a copper 

 mirror was bound round it to lighten his way through the 

 darkness of Hades. Silver wares such as rings, bangles, or 

 other jewelry, being often interred in the same sepulchre 

 were gradually dissolved by the mercury and attracted to the 

 copper mirror to which the silver adhered. If sufficient 

 time was allowed to elapse the mercury and silver penetrated 

 to the very core of the mirror, and the whole, became 

 silverised. Thus by the time it was 1000 years old the 

 copper mirror had become snow white. These mirrors arc 

 now spoken of as " Silver backed mirrors " ($& If it), while 

 the common people call them Silver Soaked Mirrors' (Hf &). 



If a mirror happened to become stained with blood from 

 the dead body to which it was attached, before the mercury 

 had acted upon it, and if no silver article had been deposited 

 in the tomb, then when eventually the mercury did act 

 upon, and penetrate the mirror, its colour became like black 

 lead, and is now called " A lead backed mirror " (!& H). In 

 colloquial it is called a mercurial mirror (Tfc $1 &). These 

 mirrors are sometimes one half mercurialised while the other 

 half is green, the green half being covered with red sand 

 granules. The half which is found to be green was probably 

 the first to be affected by the flesh or blood of the dead, and 

 then afterwards mercurialised, while the other half was only 

 mercurialised. This explains the anomaly of how two 

 diametrically opposite colours are sometimes found on the 

 same mirror. 



To the antiquarian the silver backed mirror is of most 

 value, while lead backed variety takes a second place, and 

 the green, blue or black specimens are reckoned to be of 

 inferior quality. 



When a lead backed mirror has been buried in the earth 

 for many years, then its colour becomes jet black and is 

 known as a " black varnish backed mirror." This variety of 

 mirror is not only very rare, but is of considerable intrinsic 

 value. 



Counterfeits of this variety are, however, easily made, 

 but the fraud is readily detected. On sounding the genuine 

 antique, it is absolutely void of any metal ring, while the 

 counterfeit has a very distinct metal sound. On weighing 

 the genuine antique it proves to be very light, while the 

 counterfeit is heavy and clumsy. On scraping the genuine 



