Lot 888. A bronze taotie mask-form fitting, Northern Wei dynasty (AD 386-534); 4 5/8 in. (11.7 cm.) wideEstimate USD 4,000 - USD 6,000. Price realised USD 2,500. © Christie's Image Ltd 2020.

Cast as a taotie mask with curved fangs, a beak-form nose, bulging eyes and a pair of pricked ears which flank a central openwork area formed with a figure standing with arms akimbo on the back legs of two confronted dragons, tieli and softwood stand.

Provenance: The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Chicago, acquired prior to 1970.

Literature: The Arts Club of Chicago, Chinese Art from the Collection of James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf, Chicago, 1970, no. B14.

Exhibited: Chicago, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chinese Art from the Collection of James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf, 21 September-13 November 1970.

Note: 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, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 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." This mask also retains its pendent ring handle which duplicates the openwork decoration that is found between the ears of the animal mask. A similar fitting of comparable size was sold at Christie's New York, 20-21 March 2014, lot 2041.

Christie's. Sacred and Imperial: The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection Part II, New York, 24 September 2020