A rare and important gold funerary mask, Liao dynasty

Acquired in Asia in 1980s, and thence by descent.

The present mask is an extremely rare surviving example of imperial funerary ware from the Liao dynasty that ruled Northern China for much of the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. While the practice of covering the face of the departed had emerged endemically in China with jade suits worn by Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) royals, the tradition of covering the face in a gold mask modeled after its likeness appears to be a true Liao innovation.

Delicately hammered from pure gold with exceptional attention to detail, smooth features and intricately incised facial hair, the present mask represents one of the finest surviving examples of its type, likely produced in the mid- to late Liao period. Compare two widely published related gold masks from the same period uncovered from the tomb of the Princess of Chen (d. 1018) and Xiao Shaoju at Qinglongshan Town in Naiman Banner, included in Gilded Splendor. Treasures of China’s Liao Empire (907-1125), Asia Society, New York, 2006, cat. nos 2 and 6, where the author notes that the material used and amount of face covered by the mask were key indicators of an owner’s status and power, and that those of pliable gold sheet were likely ‘fit for only a member of the imperial clan.’

Indeed, gold masks of this type and condition are exceedingly rare and the present lot ranks amongst the heaviest of its kind published and in private hands. For a related gold mask recently sold at auction, see one with a connected head strap (103.3 grams in weight), sold at Christie’s New York, 26th March 2010, lot 1292. 

For related Liao masks in other materials compare a gold-plated silver example of a noblewoman excavated from the tombs at Xiaolamagou, Balibao village, Liaoning province, in Zhongguo jin yin boli falang qi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese gold, silver, glass and enamel utensils], vol. II, Shijiazhuang, 2004, pl. 352; a related mask, rendered in gilt bronze, excavated from a Liao tomb at Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, in The Silk Road in Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong, 2007, cat. no. 18; a gilt bronze pair with matching filigree crowns in the Musée Cernuschi, Paris (accession no. M.C. 2001-8), illustrated in Han Wei and Christian Deydier, Ancient Chinese Gold, Paris, 2001, pls 508 and 509; and a silver example from the Carle Kempe Collection, sold in our London rooms, 14th May 2008, lot 92.

For line drawings of other masks of this type in various materials and a proposed chronology of the development of their design, see also Zhu Tianshu, ed., Liaodai jin yin qi [Gold and silver of the Liao dynasty], Beijing, 1998, figs 78-84.