Asian Arts Thursday, 21 March 2024 - 4:00 PM start
A Rare Chinese 11th Century Liao Dynasty Copper Alloy Funerary Mask
Lot Details
A Rare Chinese 11th Century Liao Dynasty Copper Alloy Funerary Mask Hammered from a thin copper, tin and silver alloy sheet, the surface covered with earthen encrustation and variegated patina. 16 x 13 cm Funerary masks such as this lot began to appear in the West in the early 20th century. It was Japanese archeologists during the occupation of Manchuria who identified the group as belonging to the Khitan tribes that formed the Liao dynasty (907-1125). For a review of the archeological history of these masks, Liao burial customs, and a silver-coated bronze mask at the University Museum, Philadelphia, see Jan Fontein & Tung Wu, Unearthing China's Past, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1973, cat. no. 101, pp. 192-194. See also Asia Society exhibition, Gilded Splendor: Treasures of China's Liao Empire (907-1125),, New York, 2006, pp. 100 - 101.
