Face Mask in Sheet Gold
Central Asian style · 17.5K gold
A face a little smaller than life — wide almond eyes, a long straight nose, a heavy mouth — raised from a single sheet of gold.
- Form
- Repoussé sheet-gold mask
- Gold
- 17.5 karat — 72.8% gold by XRF
- Weight
- 28 g
- Dimensions
- 13 × 10.5 cm (5 ⅛ × 4 ⅛ in.)
- Style
- Central Asian style; made now
- Reference
- CG-05
$3,600
In stock. Price includes packing; insured shipping is quoted at cost once we know where it is going. This piece is priced by weight against the gold price. To buy it, or to ask anything first, write to us — we reply the same day and send an invoice you can pay by card or transfer.
Enquire about this pieceMasks of beaten gold were laid over the faces of the honoured dead across a wide stretch of the ancient world, from Mycenae to Central Asia. This one follows that tradition in form only: it is a contemporary piece, made to be displayed.
The features are pushed out boldly and left unpolished, with the eyes outlined by a raised rim and the brow and cheeks kept broad and flat, so that the face holds its shape in raking light. The edges are irregular, as they are on any sheet worked with a hammer.
Thirteen centimetres high and 28 grams at 72.8 per cent gold by XRF; priced by weight. It wants a stand or a dark box mount, lit from one side.