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Lot Essay
This lot was acquired in July 1993 by the present owner.
The present pair of fittings are extraordinary in their size and casting details.
A similar mask with sturdy ring handle is in the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen; see Andre Leth, Kinesisk Kunst, Copenhagen, 1959, no. 22. Compare also to the very large and elaborately decorated mask suspending a circular handle found in Yixian, Hebei, in 1966, illustrated by William Watson, The Genius of China, London, 1973, no. 135, dated to the Warring States (5th century BC) period. The Yixian example, cast with the addition of a bird motif above the taotie animal-mask, appears to be a deliberate revival of a motif from Shang dynasty bronzes, ibid, p. 97. A related pair of gilt-bronze animal masks but much smaller in size (each measuring 7.8 cm. in length) in the Nitta Collection, included in the exhibition, The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, National Palace Museum, Taibei, 1987, is illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 297, pl. 191.
The present pair of fittings are extraordinary in their size and casting details.
A similar mask with sturdy ring handle is in the Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen; see Andre Leth, Kinesisk Kunst, Copenhagen, 1959, no. 22. Compare also to the very large and elaborately decorated mask suspending a circular handle found in Yixian, Hebei, in 1966, illustrated by William Watson, The Genius of China, London, 1973, no. 135, dated to the Warring States (5th century BC) period. The Yixian example, cast with the addition of a bird motif above the taotie animal-mask, appears to be a deliberate revival of a motif from Shang dynasty bronzes, ibid, p. 97. A related pair of gilt-bronze animal masks but much smaller in size (each measuring 7.8 cm. in length) in the Nitta Collection, included in the exhibition, The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom, National Palace Museum, Taibei, 1987, is illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 297, pl. 191.