A gilt-bronze 'bird' mask, Northern Wei dynasty | 北魏 鎏金銅羽人獸面紋舖首

A similar reticulated bronze mask and its matching ring handle, each centred with a figure flanked by a pair of dragons, were unearthed in Guyuan, Ningxia, and published in 'Ningxia Guyuan Beiwei mu qingli jianbao [A brief archaeological report of a Northern Wei tomb in Guyuan, Ningxia]', Wenwu / Cultural Relics, 1984, no. 6, pp. 46-50, figs 17 and 19. See also another example with a trefoil-crowned zoomorphic mask surmounted by a figure and four animals arranged in a symmetrical design, from the collection of C.L. Rutherston, illustrated in Walter Perceval Yetts, Chinese Bronzes, London, 1925, pl. 9C. A pair of gilt bronze mask and ring handles, formerly in the collections of Walter Hochstadter and Barry L. MacLean, was sold twice in our New York rooms, 20th March 2002, lot 24, and again, 23rd March 2022, lot 248.