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7. Wooden frame wrapped with gauze Liao dynasty (907-1125) |
This wooden frame inside a silk gauze wrapping has suffered some breakage, thus changing somewhat its dimensions. However, it is more or less 35 centimetres in length and 21.5 centimetres wide. The first step in making the frame was to wrap two wooden sticks with silk gauze. Each stick was about 1 millimetre thick, 2 centimetres wide and 35 centimetres long, and was covered by gauze ribbons wrapped a Z direction in nine twists. The silk ribbon is of a symmetrically folded purple complex gauze that would be about 6 centimetres in width before folding and 70 to 80 centimetres in length. It was decorated with gold foil pasted to its surface in a floral scroll pattern. One wooden horizontal strut, 21.5 centimetres in length and 3 centimetres wide, was then affixed to the two vertical sticks. They were affixed to the tops of the first two sticks by wrapping a purple damask ribbon in a Z design. Finally, a purple gauze 21.5 centimetres in width and 7 centimetres in length decorated with an animal head motif at each end was stitched onto the top of the frame. The animal head motif is about 5 centimetres wide and 5.5 centimetres in length, the head and details being outlined in ink on the gold foil surface, including a nose, eye, tongue, teeth and a pearl held in the mouth. Ink outline was also used on the scrolling pattern of the ribbons. The purpose for which this frame was used poses a difficult problem. A wooden animal head sculpture used as a finial on a bed-shaped coffin has been found in a Liao tomb at Bazalaga, (Keyouzhongqi, Inner Mongolia) in the same style as the gold foil animal heads. However, a wooden board with the same shape and size as the present frame and known as a ling pai . meaning board of the soul, written with the name and the title of the deceased, was excavated from the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) tomb of the King of the Qi in Acheng (Helongjiang. The present object, possibly, therefore might have been meant to frame such a soul board. |