A RARE GREEN JADE FUNERARY MASK, WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 10TH CENTURY BC
This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve

Published:
1. Myrna Myers (ed.) & Filippo Salviati (auth.), The Language of Adornment. Chinese Ornaments of Jade, Crystal, Amber and Glass, Paris, 2002, no. 23.
2. Jean-Paul Desroches (ed.) et al, The Beginning of the World. Dragons, Phoenix and Other Chimera, Fondation Baur, Geneva, 2020, p. 205, no. 132.

Exhibited:
1. Fondation Baur, The Beginning of the World – According to the Chinese. Dragons, Phoenix and Other Chimera, Geneva, 11 November 2020-23 May 2021.
2. Musée Départemental des Arts Asiatiques, The Beginning of the World – According to the Chinese. Dragons, Phoenix and Other Chimera, Nice, Summer 2021.

China. This funerary face covering is composed of fourteen variously shaped jade plaques reproducing the features of a human face: eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, moustache and ears. Except for the mouth, all the elements are pierced with small apertures. The semi-translucent stone of a green hue with extensive calcification of ivory-white and creamy-beige color. (14)

Provenance: The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, Paris, France. Acquired between circa 1965-2012.
Condition: Excellent condition with minor wear, signs of prolonged burial, traces of weathering, natural imperfections, remnants of ancient cinnabar, minute nibbling to the extremities. Natural inclusions.

Weight: 2.7-17.1 g
Dimensions: Length 3.7-7.5 cm

The central idea behind funerary face coverings was to prevent the spirit from wandering by offering it a new support, as well as to ensure passage of the spirit to its rightful place in the beyond. In the Chinese cultural context, it was believed that the human soul, and especially that of a high-ranking individual, was essentially composed of two parts, called hun and bo, which separated after death. The hun was conceived of as a sort of ethereal body, the real spirit of the deceased, contrary to the bo or earthly soul which found its place in the realm of the dead. An interesting passage of the 2nd century work Fengsu tongyi by Ying Shao casts additional light on the use of jade funerary masks in China: ‘the vital energy of the hun of a dead person floats away; therefore a mask is made in order to retain it.’

Funerary masks in jade are mostly documented in China during the late Western Zhou period. They eventually disappeared, to be revived only briefly and sporadically during the Western Han, when the practice of burying the dead with jades was taken a step further with the creation of elaborate jade shrouds. Since the use of funerary masks is geographically limited to the northern provinces of Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, it is possible that they reflect a local adaptation of a funerary practice of non-Chinese origin found in various Central Asian regions.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related jade funerary face mask, dated to the late Western Zhou dynasty, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, accession number 購玉000410N000000000. Compare a closely related jade funerary face mask, excavated Necropolis of State Guo, Sanmenxia, Henan Province, now in the Henan Provincial Museum, and illustrated in Gu Fang, The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 5, Beijing, 2005, p. 136. Compare closely related jade ornaments for a funerary face mask, dated late Western Zhou, first half of the 9^th century BC, in the Shanghai Museum.