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Published: Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, 1996, p. 1, no. 1
Exhibited: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Chinese Jades from the Hartman Collection, August 2003-December 2004. Although no catalog was produced for the exhibition, the Museum later honored the Hartmans by naming an entire suite of exhibition rooms after them, opening the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013. A copy of the loan record for the present lot, issued by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, accompanies the present lot.
China, 3200-2300 BC. Of short cylindrical form with a square cross-section, the sides divided into two registers, carved with a pair of confronting, stylized human masks at each corner, each mask comprising two horizontal bars above a shorter oblong bar forming the nose and two finely incised circles forming the eyes. The opaque stone is of a creamy-white ivory color mottled with pale gray inclusions.
Provenance: From the private collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, New York. Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot 1593, dated as “possibly neolithic” and published with a mid-estimate of HKD 125,000 or approximately EUR 22,500 after conversion and inflation calculated at the time of writing. The interior with two overlapping labels from Hartman, ‘JI605 NED.’, a label from the Alan & Simone Hartman Jade Exhibition, no. ‘1’, and a label from Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2007, lot ‘1593’.
Alan Hartman (1930-2023) was an influential American art dealer, who took over his parents’ antique business in Manhattan and established the legendary Rare Art Gallery on Madison Avenue, with further locations in Dallas and Palm Beach. His wife Simone (née Horowitz) already served as assistant manager of the New York gallery before the couple married in 1975, and together they built a renowned collection for over half a century and became noted art patrons, enriching the collections of important museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (which opened the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013) as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum in New York. Alan Hartman has been described as the greatest antiques dealer of our generation, and was widely recognized as a world authority in Chinese jade, bronzes, and Asian works of art.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age, traces of weathering and erosion, ancient wear and inherent natural imperfections, such as inclusions and fissures, some of which have developed into small hairlines. Occasional nicks, smoothened over time, along the slightly worn-down edges. The stone surface, partially altered, with some areas of soil encrustation.
Weight: 108.8 g
Dimensions: Width 6.7 cm
The Liangzhu culture and its remarkable jade artifacts came to prominence in the late 1980s, when the discovery of several significant cemeteries brought international attention to the richness of their tomb contents. Since then, a wave of new archaeological findings has dramatically transformed our understanding of this late Neolithic civilization. At the Mojiaoshan site, Chinese archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a vast, walled settlement covering 750 acres. This site, the largest known walled settlement from late Neolithic China, includes palatial foundations, jade workshops, habitation zones, and a sophisticated network of internal waterways.
Distinguished by their quantity, variety, and superb craftsmanship, Liangzhu jades are among the most iconic artifacts in the history of Chinese civilization. Among them, the jade cong stands out as the most emblematic. These objects feature a square exterior surrounding a circular inner hollow, with each corner serving as a vertical axis for the carving of symmetrical mask motifs. Early examples are typically squat and intricately decorated with deities or animal forms. In contrast, later versions are tall and slender, with stylized facial features dominated by prominent eyes and noses.
The arrangement of the confronting rows of faces on the present cong is particularly unusual, yet compositional variations are known within the Liangzhu jade tradition. A comparable brown jade two-tiered cong, carved with animal masks above a row of shamanic figures and subsequently inscribed with an imperial poem by the Qianlong Emperor, is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (See Ancient China: The 5000 Year Civilization Demonstrated by Jades, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2019, cat. no. 199).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 9 October 2022, lot 110
Price: HKD 3,780,000 or approx. EUR 448,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A jade cong, Neolithic period, Liangzhu culture
Expert remark: Compare the similar form and the confronting faces. Note the size (4.7 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2018, lot 3080
Price: HKD 3,700,000 or approx. EUR 469,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A very rare jade cong, late Liangzhu culture, circa 3000-2500 BC
Expert remark: Compare the similar form, color of the jade, and size (6.5 cm).
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