Lot 167. A dark spinach-green jade cong, Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1100 BC), 3 ½ in. (8.9 cm.) high, box. Estimate HKD 150,000 - HKD 260,000 (USD 19,390 - USD 33,610). Price realised HKD 187,500 (USD 24,238) © Christie’s Images Limited 2017.

The thick-sided square-section facetted exterior is left undecorated, terminating in a short circular foot and mouth, the interior aperture of characteristic circular section, the highly polished stone of an attractive mottled dark sea-green tone. 

Provenance: Alex Vervoodt, Amsterdam 
The personal collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, acquired prior to 1996
Sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1592

Literature: Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 2

Exhibited: Christie's New York, 13-26 March 2001 
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, August 2003 - December 2004

Note: Compare a cong of similar form in the British Museum illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Jade, London, 1995, p. 151, fig. 2; compare also a somewhat larger undecorated spinach-green jade cong included in the exhibition, Chinese Jade, An Important Private Collection, Spink and Sons, November 1991, in the catalogue, no. 23.

Christie's. The Pavilion Sale - Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 4 April 2017, Hong Kong