LATE LIANGZHU CULTURE, CIRCA 2600-2300 BC

Details

AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE NINE-TIERED JADE CONG
LATE LIANGZHU CULTURE, CIRCA 2600-2300 BC
The cong is of square cross section surrounding a cylindrically hollowed tube to the centre with rounded square corners, and tapers slightly from top to bottom. The sides are divided into nine registers with a stylised mask at each of the four corners, comprising two long bars above a shorter bar and flanked by two incised circles forming the eyes. The mottled stone is of a reddishblack and light brown colour.
9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm.) high, box

Provenance

The Yangdetang Collection, Taipei, acquired prior to 1999

Literature

Teng Shu-p’ing, Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, Taipei, 1999, pl. 87

Exhibited

National Palace Museum, Collectors’ Exhibition of Archaic Chinese Jades, Taipei, 1999, Catalogue, pl. 27

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Lot Essay

The present piece, carved with nine tiers of face masks, is exceptionally tall for a Liangzhu jade cong, and would have undoubtedly been extremely costly to make due to the consumption of such a large piece of material. Each tier is delicately rendered at the four corners with circles denoting the eyes, a raised rib underneath denoting the nose and two slimmer parallel bands above denoting the crown. Such large pieces are very rare and examples with nine tiers are particularly uncommon.

Compare to an eleven-tiered cong in the Qing Court Collection, now at the Palace Museum, carved with similar face masks and of similar stone type, illustrated in Jadeware (I), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 32. Compare also to a sixtiered cong with similar masks, excavated in Caoxieshan in Jiangsu, now in the Nanjing Museum Collection, illustrated in Liangzhu wenhua yuqi, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 49.

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