A GRAYISH-GREEN JADE TAOTIE MASK PLAQUE

Details

A GRAYISH-GREEN JADE TAOTIE MASK PLAQUE
EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, CA. 1100-900 B.C.

The thick, flat plaque well carved on one side with a taotie mask formed by grooved lines and narrow curvilinear lines which continue around the edge to create correspondingly ridged and notched sides, the reverse plain, pierced diagonally through the lower rim, the gray-green stone with high, lustrous polish now suffused with fine opaque buff mottling from alteration in burial, traces of cinnabar and earth encrustation--1 9/16in. (2.7cm.) high

Lot Essay

This simple frontal mask is comparable to the excavated example from Burial No. 1 at Xincun, Xun County, Henan, Xunxian Xincun (Excavations of Western Zhou Tombs at Xincun in Xun County), Beijing, 1964, p. 64, pl. CII:1. The Xincun example is also small at 3.9cm. tall x 4.3cm. wide. The present lot closely approximates the Xincun example in style and form and therefore should be considered Early to Middle Western Zhou in date. Prototypes from Shang tombs are well represented by the small masks decorated with double-line decor from the Fu Hao tomb at Anyang, Yinxu Fu Hao mu, n.d., Beijing, p. 163, fig. 84:9-10, p. 161