† A RARE TWO-TIERED JADE CONG, NEOLITHIC PERIOD, LIANGZHU CULTURE

拍品描述

† A RARE TWO-TIERED JADE CONG, NEOLITHIC PERIOD, LIANGZHU CULTURE Expert authentication: Dr. Gu Fang has examined the present lot and confirms its authenticity and the dating above, noting the style of cutting, workmanship, thickness, and quality of stone with decomposed areas indicating burial all suggest a dating to ca. 3200-2300 BC. He assessed it as a piece of notably good quality. A copy of Dr. Gu's signed expertise, dated 10 September 2021, accompanies this lot. Dr. Gu Fang (born 1962) is an internationally renowned scholar of Chinese art and a leading authority on jades. He graduated from the Department of Archaeology at the prestigious Beijing University in 1986 and later studied at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), where he now serves as a Senior Fellow specializing in archaeological excavations and Chinese jade research. A former visiting scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he has authored several books on Chinese jades, including the 15-volume The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China (2007), one of the most comprehensive studies of its kind, as well as Chinese Jade: The Spiritual and Cultural Significance of Jade in China (2012). Southeast China, c. 3200-2300 BC. Superbly carved, the thick walls with gently rounded sides enclosing a cylindrical interior, each corner of both tiers embellished with an abstract animal mask articulated by a pair of incised circular eyes above a raised oblong nose and crowned by two parallel raised bands incised with neatly incised line work. The faces are separated by a gently recessed vertical band running down the center of each side. The translucent stone is of a pale yellowish-green tone, its surface extensively covered with opaque calcification and displaying areas of reddish mottling and veining throughout, resulting from prolonged burial in association with iron oxides. Dimensions: Width 13.7 cm The present lot represents one of the archetypal jade artefacts from the Liangzhu culture (c. 3300-2300 BC). Cong, typically with a square outer section around a circular one inside, remain among the most enigmatic objects from ancient China. Excavated in various forms and sizes from archaeological sites in southeast China, they appear to have served some important ritual or ceremonial purposes among the elites of this early society, who possessed enough wealth and power to command their production. Some of these jade cong, such as the present lot, were originally green; the soft white color is the result of calcification after being in the ground for thousands of years. The Liangzhu culture and its remarkable jade artifacts came to prominence in the late 1980s, when the discovery of several significant cemeteries brought international attention to the richness of their tomb contents. Since then, a wave of new archaeological findings has dramatically transformed our understanding of this late Neolithic civilization. At the Mojiaoshan site, Chinese archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a vast, walled settlement covering 750 acres. This site, the largest known walled settlement from late Neolithic China, includes palatial foundations, jade workshops, habitation zones, and a sophisticated network of internal waterways. Literature comparison: Compare a closely related smaller Liangzhu jade two-tiered cong carved from a similarly altered stone, 7.6 cm wide, in the Seattle Art Museum, accession number 88.112. Compare a closely related Liangzhu jade two-tiered cong of similar form and size (13.9 cm) in the Art Institute of Chicago, reference number 1926.2029. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2018, lot 2701 Price: HKD 3,940,000 or approx. EUR 504,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related form (albeit single-tiered), manner of carving, stone, mask motif, and incised decoration. Note the related size (4.1 cm). Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2018, lot 3080 Price: HKD 3,700,000 or approx. EUR 473,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, manner of carving, stone, and motifs, albeit with the inclusion of a stylized human mask below the animal mask very similar to the ones on the present lot. Note the similar size (6.5 cm). 13% VAT will be added to the hammer price additional to the buyer's premium - only for buyers within the EU.

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