Lot 2000. An olive-green and brown jade cong, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture, circa 2500 BC; 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm.) high. Estimate USD 12,000 - USD 18,000. Price Realized USD 245,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2014. 

The cong is of square cross section surrounding a central circular tube with rounded square collars, and tapers slightly from top to bottom. The sides are divided into seven registers with a stylized face at each of the four corners, the masks in the lower six registers have two narrow striated bands above a smaller 'nose', while the uppermost register is carved with only the 'nose'. The mottled stone is of olive-green and brown color, wood stand, box.

Provenance: The Rende Zhai (House of Benevolent Learning) Collection, 1949-1970s, in the United States before 1990.

Note: Compare the slightly taller (23.3 cm.) cong, also dated to the Neolithic Period, Liangzhu Culture, c. 2500 BC, which appears to be of very similar stone, illustrated by J. Rawson in Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, London, 1995, p. 128, no. 3:5. Compare, also, another taller (28.5 cm.) cong, dated to the Neolithic Period, 3rd millennium BC, in the Freer Collection and illustrated in "Neolithic Chinese Jades in the Freer Gallery of Art," Orientations, Selected Articles from 1983-1996, p. 10, no. 17; and one in The Palace Museum, Beijing, exhibited at Seibu Bijutsukan, Tokyo, in 1982, and illustrated in Shikinjo no shiho, Pekin kokyu hakubutsuin ten, Tokyo, 1992, p. 103, no. 68.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 20 - 21 March 2014