Page 12 - Sotheby's Hong Kong Important Chinese Works of Art, Oct. 9, 2022

3605

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT JAPANESE COLLECTION 新石器時代 青玉琮
A YELLOWISH-CELADON JADE CONG, 來源：
NEOLITHIC PERIOD 奉文堂陳淑貞，香港，1993年
8.2 cm
PROVENANCE
Susan Chen & Company, Hong Kong, 1993.
HK$ 200,000-300,000
US$ 25,500-38,300

The Liangzhu culture in the Yangtze River Delta, which
flourished from the late 4th to the end of the 3rd millennium
BC, was one of the most prominent Neolithic Chinese
civilisations. Among the large variety of Liangzhu artefacts,
cong stand out as iconic of this culture. They were made
for the most prestigious ranks in society. They are often
decorated with a complex motif featuring a human figure,
perhaps a shaman, on top of an animal mask with goggled
eyes, as seen on the present example.
This cong is remarkable for the warm translucent celadon
stone. See a Liangzhu culture of a pale green jade example
with a relatively large perforation similar to the present cong,
excavated from Fuquanshan and preserved in the Shanghai
Museum, published in Fuquanshan: Xinshiqi shidai yizhi fajue
baogao [Excavation report of the neolithic site on Mount
Fuquan], Beijing, 2000, cover. The Shanghai example is
similarly carved with a row of animal masks below a tier of
faces, but further flanked by bird motifs.
Liangzhu cong were imitated or even repurposed in other
Neolithic cultures. Two examples, also with relatively large
central cavities and made of translucent celadon jade, were
unearthed in the Neolithic Shixia Culture site in Haifeng,
Guangdong, published in Liangzhu and Ancient China: The
5000 Year Civilization Demonstrated by Jades, Palace
Museum, Beijing, 2019, cat. nos 172-173.

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