Lot 70. A jade cong, Shang dynasty (c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC); d. 7.6 cm, 3 in. Estimate: 150,000 - 200,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the thin-walled cong of flattened cylindrical square section, each of the four corners carved with three registers of two raised bars, the brown stone suffused with black inclusions.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, 7th January 1993.

Literature: Jiang Tao and Liu Yunhui, Jades from the Hei-Chi Collection, Beijing, 2006, pp. 80-81 top.

Note: In terms of form and decoration, this present jade is closely related to the cong from the Taosi culture; see one example excavated from Xiangfen, Shanxi, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China, vol. 3: Shanxi, Beijing, 2005, pl. 25. Similar ridges can be found on circular jade tubes excavated from the tomb of Fu Hao, consort of the Shang king Wu Ding (1324-1265 BC); see Queen Mother and General: 40th Anniversary of Excavating the Shang Tomb of Fu Hao: Jade Article, Beijing, 2016, pp. 106-108. For a cong from the late Liangzhu culture, see lot 52.

Sotheby's. Monochrome II, 9 October 2020, Hong Kong