Lot 184. A jade staff finial, Neolithic period; 13.3 cm. Lot sold: 239,400 HKD (Estimate: 20,000 - 30,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2022

the finial with a shaft of oval section, marked with two raised ridges and surmounted by a semicircular head.

Provenance: Pin Chen Tang, Hong Kong, 18th May 1988.

Literature: Jessica Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, pl. 10:28.

Exhibited: British Museum, London, on loan, 1995.

Note: A similar crescent-topped stone staff finial, albeit damaged, was recovered from an archaeological site in Wuyang Jiahu, Henan, dated to c. 6500-5500 BC. Carefully finished and unearthed together with ritual objects such as bone musical flutes, the Henan finial is believed to be of an emblematic function (Jenny F. So, Early Chinese Jades in the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 2019, p. 82, fig. 1). Compare two related finials, both ranked as the oldest stone artefacts in their collections: one in the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, accession no. 1943.50.635, illustrated ibid., pl. 4; and another in the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, accession no. F18919.52.

Sotheby's. HOTUNG  The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung: Part 1, Hong Kong, 9 October 2022