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A RARE AGATE 'PORTRAIT MASK' PENDANT, LIAO DYNASTY
奥地利
04月17日 下午5点 开拍 /15天1小时
拍品描述
Expert authentication: Dr. Gu Fang has examined the present lot and confirms its authenticity and the dating above, noting the style of cutting, workmanship, thickness and quality of stone with decomposed areas indicating burial all suggest a dating to ca. 916-1125 AD. He assessed it as a piece of notably good quality. A copy of Dr. Gu's signed expertise, dated 1 April 2022, accompanies this lot. Dr. Gu Fang (born 1962) is an internationally renowned scholar of Chinese art and a leading authority on jades. He graduated from the Department of Archaeology at the prestigious Beijing University in 1986 and later studied at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), where he now serves as a Senior Fellow specializing in archaeological excavations and Chinese jade research. A former visiting scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he has authored several books on Chinese jades, including the 15-volume The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China (2007), one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, as well as Chinese Jade: The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of Jade in China (2012).China, 916-1125. The human face boldly carved with thick lips, a broad nose, and almond-shaped eyes below expressive brows, flanked by a pair of round ears. The concave reverse is pierced at the eyes, nostrils, and at the top for suspension. The semi-translucent stone is of a rich amber color with honey-yellow shadings and deep cinnabar-red inclusions.Provenance: From a private collection in New York, United States. Condition: Good condition with expected wear, signs of weathering and erosion, traces of prolonged burial, minor nibbling, some nicks, the stone with natural fissures, some of which have developed into small hairline cracks.Weight: 32.1 g Dimensions: Length 7 cmThe ritual covering of the face occupies a continuous and symbolically charged place in Chinese funerary culture. Although later legend situates the origin of masks in the Warring States tale of Wu Zixu and King Fuchai, archaeological evidence points to a far earlier practice. Neolithic Dawenkou burials in coastal Jiangsu have yielded pottery vessels placed over the faces of the deceased, underscoring an early concern with the preservation and protection of the human visage. Across subsequent dynasties, masks fashioned from jade, agate, gold, bronze, textile, shell and leather reaffirm the enduring association of the face with identity, spiritual presence, and the passage between worlds.Masks formed part of the elaborate burial regalia of the Liao aristocracy, though excavated examples remain comparatively rare and appear largely confined to high-ranking tombs. Surviving masks—principally of hardstone, bronze, silver or gold sheet—have been recovered from a limited number of elite burials, often those of princely couples. Particularly celebrated are the gold funerary masks unearthed from the 1018 tomb of the Prince and Princess of Chen. Such works attest to the continued potency of the human face as a vehicle of status, protection, and ritual meaning in the Liao court. Compare a related jade burial mask, dated to the Liao dynasty, circa 12th century, 25.4 cm long, previously on loan to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by Sam Bernstein, Collecting Chinese Jade, 1995, title page, and also exhibited in Chinese Jade From Distant Centuries, San Francisco, September 1992, pl. 2.Within this broader tradition, small human face-form pendants such as the present lot may be understood as personal and portable expressions of the same enduring idea. From the Neolithic onward, miniature faces and head-form carvings appear across successive dynasties, in jade and other valued materials. For earlier examples in jade, see a Hongshan humanoid mask at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2019, lot 2705; a Neolithic pendant of more abstract design at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2023, lot 3779; and a Shang dynasty human mask-form fitting at Sotheby's New York, 22 September 2020, lot 245. 13% VAT will be added to the hammer price additional to the buyer's premium - only for buyers within the EU.

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拍品估价:700 - 1,500 欧元 起拍价格:700 欧元  买家佣金:

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