A BRONZE TAOTIE MASK-FORM FITTING

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.