Hong Kong Palace Museum | Radiance: Ancient Gold from the Hong Kong Palace Museum Collection and the Mengdiexuan Collection

This type of headdress with a ribbed top was made of gold with fine wires. The lotus flowers, bats, and brocade balls all carry auspicious meanings. The dragons’ necks and the flaming pearl are connected to the headdress with springs and would sway with each movement. As seen from surviving Ming dynasty (1368–1644) portraits, this type of headdress was placed over a hairnet with hairpins as part of an elaborate headdress to be worn by elite women. This type of headdress might have been worn by the male elite, as seen from the costumes of the emperor and princes in the painting The Qianlong Emperor Enjoying the Lunar New Year in Gallery 2. This is the first object acquired for the Hong Kong Palace Museum Collection.

This facial mask was used by the Tubo elite as funerary objects. Made of gold and other precious gemstones, it reflects the lavish burial practices of the Tubo. The earliest gold mask representing individual facial features with inlaid gemstone was found in a tomb in Uygur Autonomous Region. Tubo people adopted this type of mask.

The design of this plaque can be traced back to the royal hunting scene on gold and silver artefacts of the Sasanian Empire (224–651) in Central and Western Asia. However, the costume of the archer is in Tubo’s own style. The Sasanian Empire was founded by Persians and spread Persian art at its apogee as far afield as Western Europe, Africa, India, and China.

Women of the Tang dynasty were fond of decorating their hair elaborately in various styles. This complex headdress ornament was used by a high-ranking woman. Fine gold granules were used to outline the patterns and fill in the ground. Tang craftsmen adopted foreign gold-working techniques and often combined the granulation with gemstones and glass inlays, adding to the luxurious effect of the ornaments.

This headdress may have belonged to a member of the Xiongnu elite. It is finely decorated with animal motifs in repoussé, and the roundel at the top shows a combat scene of four tigers and stags. The holes in the centre suggest that a finial may once have been attached to the top—possibly in the shape of a three-dimensional imaginary bird or stag, like those recovered from southern Siberia, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi province. The finials were usually made with soft hides or movable parts so that a more realistic representation of animals fighting would be achieved when the wearer moved.

These gold nose rings or armlets are the oldest objects in the Mengdiexuan donation. Similar gold ornaments have been found in Siba culture (about 18th–15th century BCE) sites in the Hexi Corridor and those of the Lower Xiajiadian culture (about 16th–13th century BCE) around Mount Yan, indicating the possible transmission of gold objects from northern pastoral cultures to agricultural cultures.