A BRONZE TAOTIE MASK AND RING HANDLE

A similar mask from Leizumiao, Guyuan, Ningxia Autonomous Region, and now in the Guyuan Museum, is illustrated by James C. Y. Watt et al., in China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, New York, 2004, p. 164, no. 73, where it is dated Northern Wei dynasty, 5th century. The entry notes that the motif of a “human figure placed between the animals survives from an earlier period of Xianbei culture on the steppes.” See, also, the similar bronze mask sold at Christie's New York, 20-21 March 2014, lot 2041.