the gold sheet hammered with repoussé and cut-out details, the circular face with openwork eyes and mouth, a broad nose, pronounced cheeks and forehead, and oval ears, framed by openwork curls on all sides and a rosette surrounded by further curls at the chest, stand (2).

Provenance: Collection of Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939).
Collection of Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964), acquired circa 1939, and thence by descent.

Note: Compare a gold mask of the same design published in Yang Boda, 'Ancient Chinese Cultures of Gold Jewellery and Ornamentation', Arts of Asia, vol. 38, no. 2, March-April 2008, p. 93, fig. 21; and a pair from the Inner Mongolia Museum, Huhehaote, published in Zhang Jingming Zhongguo beifang caoyuan gudai jinyinqi [Ancient Gold and Silver Works from China's Northern Steppe], Beijing, 2005, pl. 49.

Harry Geoffrey Beasley was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (England) and founded the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, 11 september 2019