CIRCA: 1930’s
Very well carved with attention to detail, this Chinese wooden mask dates from the mid part of the first half of the 1900’s, and has a super-expressive face, especially the eyes, and an overall beautifully aged patina on a light brown wood. Lovely scroll-work above the forehead, while script / character markings on the upper back state, when read right to left, “Precious Treasure“. (Although today much Chinese script has been ‘simplified’ and is printed and read western style from left to right, pre the PRC era beginning in 1949 it was written right to left.) He has the look of a ‘jester’, or with his bulging eyes and big grin maybe someone who has just been astonished seeing something, or someone, he likes.